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Tiie New York Fasliion Bazar. 

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A LITTLE FOOL. 


JOHN STRANGE WINTER. 

.V ^ - . \ 

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NEW YORK: 

GEORGE MUNRO, PUBLISHER, 

17 TO 27 Vandewatkr Street. 


JOHN STRANGE WINTER’S WORKS 

CONTAINED IN THE SEASIDE LIBRARY (POCKET EDITION): 


NO. 

492 Booties’ Baby; or, Miguon. 
{Illustrated.) 

600 Houp-La. {Illustrated.) 

638 111 Quarters with the 25th 
(The Black Horse) Dra- 
goons. 

688 A Man of Honor; or, On 
March. {Illustrated.) 

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and out. 

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818 Pluck. ' 

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1039 Driver Dallas. 

1079 Beautiful Jim: of the Blank- 
shire Regiment. 

1117 Princess Sarah. 

1121 Booties’ Children. 

1158 My Poor Dick. 

1171 Sophy Carmine. 

1202 Harvest. 

1223 A Little Fool. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


CHAPTER 1. 

QUARTERED AT IDLE^riNSTER. 

With blackest moss the flower-plots 
Were thickly crusted one and all; 

The rusted nails fell from the knots, 

That held the pear to the garden-wall, 

The broken sheds looked sad and strange; 

Unlifted was the cliftking latch; 

Weeded and worn the ancient thatch ' 

Upon the lonely moated Grange. 

Tennyson. 

The curiosity of the good people of Idleminster who 
lived upon the same side of the town as the barracks lay 
had been aroused by the news that the Priory was being 
put in repair. 

It was an extraordinary thing, so everybody said, to. 
have the Priory occupied at all; for within the memory of 
living man it had always been empty. Nobody was very 
sure to whom it belonged — tradition said that Its owner 
was rich and hated the place, had always hated it, and was 
revenging himself upon it for some grudge he had against 
it in the past, by leaving it to the rats and the spiders and 
letting it fall to decay. 

Some said that it was haunted, others that murder had 


G 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


been done within its walls; either of which reports might 
or might not be true. Any way, certain it is tliat within 
the memory of living man its windows had never been 
cleaned, its doors and shutters painted, or its rooms made 
habitable. The garden, all that was left of what had once 
been large and extensive pleasure grounds, now sacrificed 
to the inroads of the encroaching and enterprising builder 
and covered with roads and streets of new little villas and 
terraces, had been for years a tangled mass of weeds and 
briers; the turf had strayed over the graveled foot- walks 
until it was hard to tell where any walks had been, and 
the old summer-house in the sunny corner where the road 
turned sharply round toward' the barracks, was rotten and 
fast falling to decay, having, indeed, looked for years as if 
it was only held together by the climbing wreaths of jas- 
mine and clematis which encircled it; while the ivy which 
would have entirely covered the house had it been trimmed 
and tended, was by reason of its own weight, torn down 
by every gust of wind that blew. 

Then suddenly all was changed! And one fine Monday 
morning in May, the neighbors saw with surprise that 
smoke was issuing from more than one of the long-disused 
chimneys, the windows were thrown wide open, the doors 
stood hospitably back on their hinges, and quite a small 
army of workmen seemed to have taken possession of the 
place. 

Now I must tell you that the Priory was not in the city 
of Idleminster itself, but was away on the pretty counti^ 
road which ran past the barracks, which lie, as every one 
knows, about a couple of miles from the town. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


7 


Why ifc had ever been called “ the Priory nobody 
knew, but undoubtedly such was its name, though up to 
the time of which I am writing it might — if one had 
allowed one^s imagination to supply the moat — as well, or 
really better, have been called ‘ ‘ the moated Grange ^ ’ 
than anything else. For there was absolutely nothing of a 
priory about it. In the few places where the ivy had left 
the walls uncovered, you could see that they were of red 
brick— the upper story had very ordinary sash-windows, 
and the rooms on the ground-floor had French casements; 
there was a wide, old-fashioned door in the middle, and on 
either side a sitting-room with large windows, that on the 
right evidently the dining-room, the one on the other side 
having traces of gilding and handsome decorations still ap- 
parent about it. This last room had also a large window 
at the side, which looked out on a tangled mass of turf 
and weeds which would by and by be a flower-garden or 
perhaps a tennis-ground, and it led into a very tiny room 
or boudoir , by a door- way next to the flre-place. Truly 
not much of the priory about this part of the house. 

Nor was it more so elsewhere — the entrance hall was low 
and wide, the walls paneled to the cornice with wood off 
which the faded and blistered salmon-colored paint was 
fast peeling under the hands of a skillful artisan — the 
stairs were wide and shallow, the hand-rail of the balusters 
broad and massive, while the window which lighted the 
first landing and faced the hall was filled with richly 
stained glass, and had, happily, borne the ravages of time 
and chance better almost than any other window in the 
house. 


8 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


The rooms above were veiy much like the rooms below 
— large, pleasant and cheery, though somewhat low in the 
ceilings. And here, as in the sitting-rooms, men were 
hard at work peeling oS the damp and dingy paper or 
scraping away the shabby and blistered paint. 

“ A picturesque old place, my dear,^^ remarked one or 
two eagerly inquisitive ladies who, under pretense of find- 
ing out if the Priory would suit them to live in or not, had 
strayed in to see what they could see and pick up any odds 
and ends of news which might happen to be fioating about. 
“In a dreadful state, of course — but decidedly a house 
with capabilities. H^m — 1 suppose,^^ in a different tone, 
as she addressed herself to a man with a pail of hot water 
who appeared in the door-way at that moment — ‘ ‘ I sup- 
pose there is no objection to our looking over the house?^^ 

“ Not as I knows on, mum,’^ returned the man, civilly, 
“ though youTl find it in a terrible dirty condition, scarce 
fit for ladies to venture in.^^ 

“Oh, we don’t mind the dirt — thanks,” with a little 
airy laugh. “ I suppose you are going to do the place up 
thoroughly?” 

“ From end to end, mum,” rejilied the man, promptly. 

“ Ah ! — that will make a great difference. And — er — 
do you know what rent is asked for the place?” 

But the intelligent workman shook his head. “ I 
haven’t any idea, mum — in fact, I believe the ’ouse is not 
to let; but Mr. Somers is here, he’ll be able to tell you if 
you ask him, mum. ” 

At this moment Mr. Somers came along — a smart young 


A LITTLE FOOL 


9 


man, the son of the contractor who was carrying out the 
work of putting the house into habitable repair. 

“ Lady wants to know the rent, sir/^ said the workman, 
then dipped his bruush into his pail and went on splashing 
at the walls as if his lifers ransom hung upon his not wast- 
ing so much as a single moment. 

“ Good-morning, ma^am — the house is not to let,^^ said 
young Mr. Somers, civilly. 

“Oh! really. Ah! Fm sorry — such a pretty old place,” 
murmured the lady, who would almost as soon have laid 
her head in her coffin as have laid it under the roof of the 
Priory — “ and is it being done up to live in?” 

“ It is, ma’am — the owner is coming to occupy the 
house as soon as we get our part done.” 

“Oh! really— you don’t say so. By the bye, who is 
the owner?” 

“ A Mrs. Darrell,” returned young-Mr. Somers. 

“ Mrs. Darrell — oh I really — Well, we must not take 
up any more of your time. Many thanks for letting us 
look over the house. ” 

The two ladies made a polite bow to the young man, 
who took off his hat, perhaps thinking as he did so that as 
they had given themselves the permission to look over the 
house, he could not take much credit to himself for his 
graciotisness in the matter. 

Then the one who had done all the talking turned back 
again. “ Er — by the bye — you couldn’t tell me, I dare 
say, where Mrs. Darrell has lived until now?” 

“ I could not, ma’am — our first instructions came from 
her solicitors, who said she was abroad — then she came 


10 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


down to see the place for herself and to choose papers and 
paint and so on.^^ 

“ Is she young?^^ eagerly. 

“ Not particularly young, ma^am,^^ replied young Mr. 
Somers in a matter-of-fact tone — “ about as old as your- 
self, I should say. Any way, sheM a grown-up daughter 
with her — un uncommonly pretty young lady too she was, 
uncommonly pretty. 

“Oh! 1 see — er — ^^oo^?-morning,'^ and away went the 
little lady after her friend, feeling that young Mr. 
Somers’s civility was all put on and that he had meant 
neither more nor less than to deliberately, insult her — for 
she was just thirty-four and had a family of small children 
of whom the eldest was not yet six years old — and to be 
classed as “ not particularly young ” and about the same 
age as a woman with a grown-up daughter was rather 
more than even her airy graciousness could stand against. 
“ A most insufferable young man, my dear,” she re- 
marked to 'her friend when she joined her at the gate. 

‘ ‘ That is the worst of Idleminster people — particularly of 
that class — there’s so much of the good-as-you-and-better 
air about them. ” 

“ What did he say?” asked the other. 

“Oh! well, it was not so much what he said as the 
way he said it,” returned the airy little lady vaguely. 

And, after all, the aggravating part of it was that she 
had to go away without any very definite or accurate in- 
formation about the lady who was coming to live at the 
Priory — only that she was a Mrs. Darrell and that she had 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


11 


been abroad, though whether for a long or short period she 
had not the least idea. 

And if she had only known it was such a simple story, 
the story of Mrs. Darrell; just the very ordinary one of a 
beautiful woman married very young and against the ad- 
vice and wishes of her friends to a handsome, dissolute 
scoundrel, who had been the most devoted of lovers and 
adoring of husbands as long as the wife^s few thousand 
pounds lasted; who had been the fondest of husbands and 
fathers even then, yet who let his wife go almost roofless 
and his children quite shoeless while he gambled away 
every farthing of their small income; who finally took to 
hard drinking as the only panacea by which to drown his 
conscience, and finally died the miserable death of a drunk- 
ard, leaving the beautiful heart-broken wife at thirty years 
old to bring up their three little children as best she could 
on the wretched pittance which remained of their joint 
fortunes! 

But Mrs. Darrell did ii-r-lioiu, neither she nor any one 
else ever quite knew — by sifch a struggle with poverty and 
fate as only such women as she ever know the meaning of; 
by living in France and Italy that every penny might be 
put to the best use and her children have the benefit of 
that education which comes freely to those who live in a 
foreign country — the benefit of learning perfectly other 
tongues besides their own. 

There were times when she gave lessons in English or 
did sewing for the shops of the towns in which they were 
living, and later, when by a mighty effort she moved to 
Milan, she took an old palazzo and set up a home for Eii- 


12 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


glish girls who wished to study under the great masters of 
singiug there — that perhaps paid her the best of all, for 
the end was fairly good and the means thereto thoroughly 
to her taste. 

And then, when ten years of widowhood and strife 
had come and gone, when her eldest girl was eight- 
een and beginning to fancy she could help her mother 
better by going out into the world than by taking her 
share of the daily duties of the old palazzo, there came a 
great change, for George Darrell’s uncle and godfather 
died, leaving to his graceless nephew’s widow — whom, by 
the bye, he had never seen or encouraged in any way — the 
old Priory near Idleminster, a legacy of three hundred 
pounds to put it into thorough repair, and a further sum, 
sufficient to bring in four hundred a. year, securely invest- 
ed in the Funds. 

Even in the first flush of her joy and delight Mrs. Dar- 
rell never hesitated about going at once to settle down in 
the house at Idleminster. She cared but little what size it 
was, knowing or at least believing that the kind old man 
who had set her free from care for the rest of her life, 
would not have left the place to her if it had been too 
large for the income he had left with it — and to her the 
joy of having a home of her very own, near a good county 
town where her children would be able to take their natu- 
ral position, was simply inexpressible; and as soon as they 
could set off to England they did so, leaving for a year or 
so the youngest of the three girls behind them. 

Then Mrs. Darrell and Violet went down to see their 
new house — and Violet made her flrst impression in Idle- 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


13 


minster on the heart of young Mr. Somers. He called 
her “ uncommon pretty/^ and that she truly was! 

“ Her steps royal — queen-like — and her face 
As beautiful as a saint’s in Paradise.” 


CHAPTER II. 

VIOLET DAREELL^S SWEETHEART. 

You could not light upon a sweeter thing, 

A body slight and round, and like a pear 
In growing, modest eyes, a hand, a foot 
Lessening in perfect cadence, and a skin 
As clean and white as privet when it flowers. 

Tennyson. 

I HAVE not said that the Priory was just at the en- 
trance of the village o! Ambledith, but such was the fact. 
The barracks were in the parish of Ambledith, and were in 
truth properly known as “ Ambledith Barracks, near Idle- 
minster,’^ although the regiments occupying them always 
spoke of being quartered at Idleminster and were entered 
in the Army List in that way. 

But Ambleditch rather looked down upon Idleminster, 
much in the same way as Kensington Gore looks down 
upon the dingy little streets which run north and south 
from the Strand; they may be convenient for theaters and 
for the law-courts and for business purposes generally 
— but are simply not to be compared to Queen’s Gate and 
the Gore itself for a place of living! So it was with the 
village of Ambledith! The official bungalow of the officer 
coipimanding the district was there, not many hundred 


14 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


yards away from the Priory, in fact; it boasted a squire, 
who was one of the horsiest men in all the horsey county 
of Idleshire, and whose wife'prided herself on wearing no 
heels to her shoes and the thickest soles — winter and sum- 
mer alike — of any lady of her station for ten miles around. 

And besides these attractions, there were seven or eight 
good houses belonging for the most part . to ladies who 
liked to float about the different watering-places and so 
get a good deal of change of air and scene and at the same 
time turn an honest penny by letting their houses to the 
married officers quartered at Idleminster, or to such lovers 
of le sport as desired to hunt a season with the Idleshire 
Hounds. 

So the little village took great pride to itself for being 
quite the head-quarters of the military society of the neigh- 
borhood, and always contrived somehow or other to make 
Idleminster people, and those who lived in the other outly- 
ing parts, feel that by not living in Ambleditch they occu- 
pied, socially and physically, a distinctly inferior position 
to those who did. 

There was a good deal of gossip and not a little peeping 
and prying when the new occupants of the Priory came 
and took possession of the house, over which, during the 
few days when the workmen were putting the finishing 
touches to the decorations, every lady in the village had by 
hook or by crook contrived to look. Nobody seemed to 
know anything of Mrs. DarrelPs belongings or antecedents 
except that, at one time or other, she had lived or been 
abroad — nobody seemed to know her class or station, and, 
as more than one old lady with an inordinate idea of 4ier 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


15 


own position in society and of her importance in the world 
of Ambleditch, protested — “ It really is very awkward 
— one does not know whether to call on her or not; for, 
although the fact that it is her own house is in itself a 
recommendation, yet there are persons living in their own 
houses whom, of course, it would be simply impossible to 
know."'^ 

“ 1 saw the furniture going in yesterday, said another, 
“ and you know, dear Mrs. Fox, my gate being just op- 
posite to the Priory, I can not sit at my window without 
seeing; and it all seemed very simple and tasteful. Quite 
new though, with a glance round her own well -polished 
Chippendale tables and faded damask curtains, as if the 
new mistress of the Priory would have to satisfactorily 
prove her worth before she could be placed on the same 
level as one w'hose household goods had unmistakably be- 
longed to her grandmother. She did not add, as she gave 
that deprecating glance across the. road and uttered her 
small apology for not being able to help seeing something 
of her neighbor's doings, that, as a matter of fact, it was 
not from the window of her sitting-room at all that she 
had marked the quality and newness of the furniture, but 
from that of her bedroonf above, and that she had assisted 
her natural vision with a good opeia-glass; but then, you 
know, in this world it is better to say too little than too 
much, and the wisdom of that rule was not unknown even 
in the little village of Ambleditch, or to the little old ladies 
who lived therein as their fathers and mothers had lived 
before them, ay, and, in some cases, even their fore-elders 
from generation to generation. 


16 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


Meantime Mrs. Darrell and her two elder daughters 
had taken up their quarters in the town and were very 
busy looking after the ordering and arranging of their new 
house. They gave but little thought to their new neigh- 
bors, their lives having been such as had got them into the 
habit of leaving their neighbors out of their calculations 
altogether. 

And, indeed, all Iheir energies were given to making 
every penny of the three hundred pounds, which George 
DarrelTs godfather had left for the purpose of doing up 
the Priory, do the work of at least a shilling — not an easy 
task or one which leaves much time for making discoveries 
about neighbors, although Mrs. Darrell, perhaps, was as 
clever at that kind of work as most people. Still it was 
not easy, for she not only wanted to put the Priory into 
decent repair out of that sum but in a great measure to 
furnish it as well. 

“You see,^^ she said to Violet, when they were discuss- 
ing the size of the rooms and the expediency of having the 
floors covered with carpet or polished in the style to which 
they had been so long accustomed, “ we have nothing to 
start with. It isnT as if we had a house full of good old 
furniture that only needed touching up here and there to 
look perfect. We have to start from the very beginning, 
and though it is not a large house, it will swallow up a 
good deal of furniture. 

“ That is so — but, mother dear, I should decidedly go 
for, polished floors — we all understand them and Virginie 
is used to doing them. And if they are not common in 
England, so much the better for us.^^ 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


17 


“And what jolly dances we can have/^ chimed in 
Georgie, the second girl. “And besides, lovey, if you 
don^t go wasting a lot of money on nasty, dusty, extrava- 
gant, expensive carpets, we shall be able to have some 
more frocks and such things. 

“ Trust Georgie to think of her looks,^^ Violet laughed. 

“ I donT think so much of my looks, said Georgie, 
with the utmost gravity, “as of their effect upon other 
people. And I saw some men go past the gate just now 
— oh!^^ with a rapturous clasping of her little dimpled 
hands, “ they were real lovely — lovely,’’ and she gave a 
great sigh, and fixed her blue eyes upon the little space of 
the road just then visible to them, as if all the chances of 
her future happiness were lying there. 

“ What sort of men?” asked Violet, with but little at- 
tention, for she was occupied in holding the end of a meas- 
ure that Mrs. Darrell might take the exact size of the 
room. 

“ Soldiers — officers,” returned Georgie. 

“ Ah! very likely. 1 believe we are rather near the 
barracks — we passed them on the way, I noticed. Well, 
mother, what do you think about carpet or polish?” 

“ I think we had better say polish,” Mrs. Darrell re- 
plied. “ As you say, Violet, we must not forget that 
Virginie understands it.” 

This point settled, their work was soon done; for when 
there is not much money to spend the plan of spending it 
is soon decided upon. They fixed on the tone of color for 
the curtains— on simple brass rods for the cornices, on 
such and such a suite of furniture being an absolute neces- 


18 


■A LITTLE FOOL. 


sity, aud on a certain amount of wicker-work which would 
serve its turn and look both cozy and elegant until they 
could afford to replace it by more substantial and lasting 
articles. And then, with a last look of proud possession 
round the cheerful spick and span house which was hence- 
forth to be their very own, their home, they locked the 
doors and set out to walk back to their lodgings in Idle- 
minster. 

And then the very oddest thing in the whole world hap- 
pened; for just as Mrs. Darrell passed through the gate on 
to the foot-path a lady with two gentlemen coming from 
the direction of the village stopped short with an exclama- 
tion of extreme surprise. ‘‘ Why, Gertie, she cried, “ is 
it possible it can be you?^^ 

“ Mary Mackenzie, cried Mrs. Darrell, in astonished 
tones. 

“No, not Mary Mackenzie now. I\e been Mary Sey- 
mour nearly eighteen years now. And this is my hus- 
band; Jim — this is Mrs. Darrell — Gertrude Conway, of 
whom you\e heard me speak so often, then as the gen- 
tleman whom she called Jim took off his hat, added, “ And 
are you coming to live here, Gertie, and are these, with 
a gesture of surprise at the height of one of the young 
ladies — “ your girls?^’ 

“Yes, these are my two eldest girls, Violet and Georgie. 
Madge, the youngest, we have left at school in Milan for a 
year or so. We have lived abroad entirely since my hus- 
band died ten years ago, but now we have come home for 
good. Indeed, we have just had this house left to us and 
are going to take possession in a few days. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


19 


“ I am delighted to hear it/" exclaimed Mrs. Seymour, 
heartily, ‘‘for we are living only a few doors away, and 
really, Gertie, we shall be able to fancy ourselves girls to- 
gether again, if these big children of ours do not quite do 
away with the illusion. You are going to walk into town 
— so are we. We will go together, but first let me make 
Mr. Hills of our regiment known to you."" And almost 
before the young man who accompanied them could lift 
his hat, Mrs. Seymour tucked her hand within the arm of 
her girlhood"s friend and walked ofi with her. With the 
instinct of a nature which even at seventeen was that of a 
born and .finished coquette, Georgie Darrell turned to pair 
ofi with the younger of the two officers, but Hills never 
even cast so much as a glance at her. His keen eyes — and 
they were keen — were fixed on Violet, and Georgie, much 
to her disgust, had to content herself vvdth the husband of 
her mother "s old friend — Colonel Seymour. 


CHAPTER III. 

GEORGIE DARRELL"S LITTLE FINGER. 

There are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; 
there are words, the point of which sting the heart through the 
course of a whole life. 

Miss Bremer. 

In a remarkably short time the Darrells, mother and 
daughters, settled down into that way of life into which 
their lives had been cast They found the friendship of 
Mrs. Seymour of inestimable benefit to them. Mrs. Sey- 
mour, as the wife of the officer commanding a crack 


20 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


cavalry regiment — and the Eoyal Horse was undoubtedly 
that — had a very good position apart from herself or her 
family. Then she was personally a very popular woman, 
popular with the officers and with the wives of such as 
happened to be married — popular alike with county and 
towns-people, and therefore she was really of more use to 
the Darrells as a means of introduction than a hundred 
letters written for that purpose could have been, and be- 
fore many weeks had slipped by the Darrell girls found 
themselves in the midst of what to them was simply a 
whirl of gayety. 

To many girls of their age, life in the old city and its 
neighborhood was flat, stale, and unprofitable, neither 
more nor less than as dull as ditch water — but to Violet 
and Georgie it was all fresh and fair. In all their lives be- 
fore they had really never known the meaning of the term 
“ Society,’’ and the bright summer days seemed to pass in 
an endless round of pleasure. 

Their ways of accepting the new state of affairs were 
very different. Nothing seemed to stir the quietude of the 
elder girl’s placid nature. She accepted new ideas, new 
habits, new customs with the air of having been used to 
them all her life. She was as quiet, as serene, as stately 
as she had been in the old palazzo at Milan when the great 
■object of her existence seemed to be to become her moth- 
er’s right-hand and to set the best of examples to the gen- 
erally rather boisterous English girls who had left home 
and friends to carve out a way to fame by tMe ladder which 
is perhaps of all ways to fame the most difficult to climb. 

And like her mother she was lovely, infinitely more 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


21 


beautiful than either of her sisters would ever be— whether 
Madge, who was a tall, awkward brown-faced slip of a girl, 
with little to recommend her in the way of looks except a 
wealth of shining nut-brown hair and a pair of brown eyes 
that were almost uncanny, they were so big and so change- 
ful in expression, or Georgie, who had taken after neither 
father nor mother, but was the living image of a dead and 
gone jiister of Mrs. DarrelFs, who had lived and wed and 
died twenty years before. 

Everybody agreed that Georgie Darrell was one of the 
prettiest little witches in all the wide world, and yet when 
you came to pick the little body to pieces you found that 
she was not so very pretty after all. She had ^ fine and 
lovely skin, all roses and lilies like a little child, it is true; 
and, as every one knows, a beautiful skin is like a cloak, 
it covers a multitude of faults; hers certainly did. There 
was one deep and very pretty dimple on the left side of 
her mouth, and it was perhaps that and the pearly teeth 
within that hid how completely unlovable the mouth itself 
really was. And she had a way of opening her eyes very 
widely when she was spoken to — of making great round 
O’s of them like a baby does; and she had a way too of 
wrinkling her little pert nose with an air of fastidious dis- ^ 
gust which made beholders — particularly the men — want 
to look at her again; and then she had another little way 
of thrusting her little dimpled' taper fingers into the boat- 
ing masses of her feathery golden hair with a little dis- 
tracted air of perplexity — and here let me say that I use 
the word “ floating ^' advisedly, although Georgie did not 
wear her hair hanging down her back! On the contrary. 


22 


A LTTTL]? FOOL. 


it was piled high on the top of her little head and held in 
place by a big silver dagger, and apparently nothing else, 
for every now and again the dagger would drop out and 
fall to the floor with a crash, and all the feathery golden 
hair would come tumbling down about the little fair face 
and give a flne opportunity foi all the little airs and graces 
which constituted Georgie's battery of charms. 

For that was just it! Given Violet's calm serenity of 
manner Georgie would have been nothing— her looks would 
have been pretty and nothing else; as it was, she passed for 
a beauty, and in reality her beauty was all trick way —airs 
and graces! It was the beauty of a kitten who might or 
might not, with the main chances against it, turn out an 
even tolerably handsome cat. 

And she was a rapacious little person too; rapacious in 
the way of such small attentions as fall to the share of the 
girls of her class of life — greedy of admiration, of the little 
offerings of flowers and books and such odds and ends as 
found their way to the Priory; and most greedy of all of 
the personal attention of the men of their acquaintance. 

For instance, before they had been settled at the Priory 
for three months, she had gathered quite a host of admirers 
about her. She had her pet partners for whom she saved 
waltzes, those to whom she promised her extras, those with " 
whom she went in to the flrst or second supper, and those 
with whom she sat out in shady corners or on convenient 
stairs. She knew to a nicety at what hour the troops 
would ride past the house in the morning to watering order, 
and exactly what fleld-days and inspections were going on. 
She knew and could tell you accurately each morning who 


A ' LITTLE FOOL, 


23 


was on duty as orderly officer for the day, and also could 
post you pretty accurately in the contents of the various 
regimental order-books. She showed a fine impartiality 
toward rank and standing in the service, and would as soon 
dawdle away a blissful hour of coquetry under the jasmine- 
wreathed bower in the garden with a sub of six weeks^ 
standing and his pay as she would have done with the 
senior captain of the same regiment with a lovely place of 
his own and ten thousand a year. 

“ When I marry, she remarked, one day in her most 
sapiently childish way to her sister, “ I intend to marry 
money / There^s nothing on earth like money. 

“ And Mr. Ponsonby has such lots of it,^^ returned Vio- 
let with a laugh. 

“ No, poor darling — just a hundred and fifty a year be- 
sides his pay,^^ cried G^orgie, pityingly. “As if the poor 
boy could keep out of debt on that!^^ 

“Then you donT mean to marry Mr. Ponsonby, it is 
evident,'^ said the elder girl. 

“ Marry Cyril Ponsonby,’^ cried Georgie, opening her 
eyes and her mouth too a great deal more than was good 
for her looks. “ Why, you must be mad, Vi, to suggest 
or think of such a thing. 

“ Perhaps I am; but isnT it rather a pity to see so much 
of him? He is very young, and I fancy he admires you 
very much, and— won't it be very painful for him when you 
find and take your ‘ money '?" 

“ Eeally, Violet, Pm surprised at you," cried Georgie, 
with a delightful assumption of dignity and reproachful- 
ness. “ As if 1 should run the risk of hurting poor Cyril's 


24 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


feelings in any way. Of course, he knows perfectly well 
that 1 am just as poor as a rat — as poor as he is, dear boy 
— and that any idea beyond the present is altogether out of 
the question for us. But I must say it would be hard if I 
were to shun him and treat him like a leper, simply be- 
cause he doesn^t happen to have any money. Why, it 
would be as hard as if he treated me in the same way for 
the same reason. 

“ It might be /ia?^d — but, at the same time, I can^t help 
thinking it would be wiser on both sides,"’ said Violet, 
with a sigh. 

However, Georgie could not, or would not, or, at least, 
did not see it, and still went on dealing out her small 
favors to Mr. Cyril Ponsonby and a good many others like 
him, not omitting all the same to cast her pretty wide-open 
blue eyes around in search of the money "" which was to 
lift her above the restricting poverty of her present life. 
But, somehow, the men with money did not seem to see 
sharing her favors with the insignificant youngsters who 
were but little good to any one, and although for a time 
Georgie attracted them all, the attractiveness never lasted. 
There were, handsome men and eligible in their set who 
were immensely taken with the little wrinkle of the nose, 
the sudden opening of the blue eyes, the down-falling of 
the feathery golden hair; yet when they saw the youngsters 
of their regiments come in for precisely the same course, 
the attractiveness of the little maneuvers seemed to vanish 
and become stale and unprofitable to them. 

But there was one man of their acquaintance on whom 
Georgie Darrell could make no impression whatever, ap- 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


25 


parently not even a bad one. That was one John Hills, 
senior subaltern of the Royal Horse. 

The reason was obvious — apparent to every cne who 
thought about the matter at all. And it was that Hills 
had already given away his heart to Mrs. Darrell’s elder 
daughter Violet. 

“ It will be such a good thing for her, Gertie,^’ ex- 
claimed the coloneTs wife one day to her old friend. “ 1 
can and do congratulate you from the very bottom of my 
heart. You, see we have known him for years, and he has 
always been just the same> so straightforward and honest, 
not one who ran much after girls, though they always 
seemed willing enough to make up for that by running 
after him. But I never saw him really taken before this, 
never. And it is such a good thing for Violet. 

“ Yes, it would be a good thing, I suppose,’^ murmured 
the mother, her thoughts flying sadly back to the gallant 
lover who had wooed and won her, who had been the gay 
and gallant lover to the end, although he had never had 
the strength of purpose to keep away from the accursed 
green tables for her sake and the sake of the little children 
for whom he professed such fondness. 

“ You suppose! My dear girl, the man has four thou- 
sand a year and other expectations,” cried the coloneTs 
wife, whose vein of sound and practical common sense was 
perhaps stronger than her love of romance, and who had 
nevei^ seen any reason to love her colonel less because he 
was amply blessed with the good things of this world, or 
felt the least inclination to prefer any other man to him 
because he might be a few inches taller or because he 


26 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


possessed the attraction of being, so far as she was con- 
cerned, forbidden fruit. 

And then the Eoyal Horse got their orders for India, 
and the time seemed to have come for Hills to speak out 
and secure his love, if he meant to speak at all. 

The summer had slipped away, the autumn had come 
and gone, and winter was in the midst of its frosty reign. 
It was a real old-fashioned winter, such as our fathers and 
mothers talk about and the Christmas cards glory in, and 
when the final orders for the Eoyal Horse reached the regi- 
ment, the officers, like every one else in the neighborhood, 
were in the full swing and enjoyment of skating. For a 
wonder Hills had not been on the ice that day, but he went 
up to the Priory to find the ladies just returned, and en- 
tertaining four or five young subalterns to afternoon tea; 
and a word alone with Violet he could not get. 

Ho you skate to-morrow he asked, “ or rather, will 
you wait here for me — alone ? I want to see you — weVe 
got our orders for India, and I — 1 — well, you know what I 
want to say, donH you?^^ 

And Violet, turning scarlet and then white, said 
“ Yes.^^ 


CHAPTER IV. 

HE COMETH HOT. 

“ Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading.” 

King Henry YIII. Act 4, Sc. 2 

When the morrow came, there was not the very least 
,, sign of the frost giving way. The little snow that was left 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


27 


on the road-sides and on the garden path-ways was as hard 
as iron and as unyielding as it had been the day before. 
The air was keen and cold, the wind fresh and cutting, 
the sky dull and leaden. 

At the Priory they kept the fires blazing cheerily, and 
shivered in spite of them; for the Darrells, having been 
used so long to southern winters, felt tlf^ sharp frost terri- 
bly, although they said that it was lovely and that they 
simply gloried in a real old-fashioned English winter; and 
of course who protested the most about her delight therein 
was Georgie, the one who invariably contrived to get the 
chair nearest to the fire and the one seat in a room which 
was most completely out of the draughts. 

She came into the drawing-room about two o^clock 
that afternoon, rubbing her chilly little white hands to- 
gether, her teeth chattering and her shoulders shrugged 
up almost to her ears. “ How ridiculously warm and 
comfortable you look,^' she said to Violet, who was dee^ 
in a novel of IVIiss Broughton^s — “ but isn^t it about 
time we were going ofi to the Bound Pond?^' 

Violet^s pretty pink cheeks deepened in tint, and she re- 
plied, with an assumption of carelessness really admirable 
in its way, that she did not feel inclined to skate that day, 
Georgie could go without her. 

“ Kot skate Georgie cried, as if the other was volun- 
tarily giving up paradise without any adequate or apparent 
reason. “Oh! Vi — but how absurd! ArenH you well?^^ 

“ Oh, yes; but I donT feel inclined,^^ returned Violet, 
turning yet redder; “lam very cozy where I am, and you 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


can go just as well without me, Georgie — and I\e got let- 
ters to write — and — I'm not going to skate. " 

Georgie took but one look at her sister and then sunk 
down in a heap on the rug and spread her little hands out 
to the warmth of the blazing fire. “ Do you know what 
mother is going to do to-day?" she asked. 

“ Yes — she is going to the Lyttletons with Mrs. Sey- . 
mour," Violet replied. 

“ Well, then, I don't think I shall skate either," she 
said, deliberately, keeping her attention well fixed on the 
tips of her outspread fingers. 

‘ ‘ There is no reason why you should stop at home for 
me," exclaimed Violet, hastily. 

“ No? Well, I'll go into town then and see about my 
blue frock. Is there anything I can do for you?" 

‘‘ I want some more gold beads from Mrs. Jenkins's," 
replied the elder girl, in great relief at her sister's answer. 

But it was some time before little Miss Georgie got off — 
so long she sat sunning herself in the rays of the fire-light 
that Violet began to listen with dread to every footfall on 
the ice-bound path without, knowing well that if Mr. Hills 
made his appearance before Georgie was safely out of the 
house, that the walk into Idleminster would be abandoned. 

“It will be too dark to go if you are notoff soon, 
Georgie," she said at last by way of warning. 

(“ Wants me out of the road," said Georgie, to herself.) 
“ Yes, I must be off," she replied aloud. 

But even then she dawdled and dawdled, and finally it 
was just on the point of half past three when she came 
into the drawing-room again ready to start. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 




A pretty and bewitching little figure she was too, in her 
trim gown of sailor-blue serge, with a smart little jacket 
of the same color edged with Astrakhan fur, and on the 
feathery luxuriance of her golden hair a rakish little cap of 
the same fur set rakishly a little on one side. 

“ Shall I do?^’ she inquired, artlessly turning herself 
slowly round that her sister might get a fair view of 
her. 

She had asked the same question every time that she 
had worn the gown and the coat and cap, and Violet, in 
her impatience to have her out of the way, uttered an ex- 
clamation of vexation and disgust. 

“ What a vain little thing you are, Georgie,^^ she cried. 
“ It is nearly dark now and will be quite dark by the time 
you get into Idleminster. Do go, if you are going, with- 
out wasting any more time. My beads? Ohl yes, half a 
dozen hanks of them — here is half a crown, and then, at 
last, Georgie really made a start and got off. 

When she had heard the door close behind her and had 
seen her go down the path and out at the gate and set off 
briskly, with her little fair head held well in air and her 
two little hands thrust jauntily into the pockets of her fur- 
trimmed jacket, Violet Darrell breathed freely once more. 
It was already rather more than half past three — the win- 
ter day was fast drawing in to dusk and darkness — she was 
free for at least two hours, and he might come now at any 
moment. 

For a minute or two she hesitated whether she should 
ring for Virginie and tell her that she was not at home to 
any one but Mr. Hills — then an unaccountable and inde- 


30 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


scribable shyness came over her and she shrunk from giv- 
ing such an unusual order. Iso — she would wait till he 
came, and then she ?70uld ask Virginie to bring the tea 
and the muffins and she would just whisper — ‘‘ I^m not at 
home to any one else this afternoon, Virginie. Yes, 
backed up by his presence she could do that. 

The Darrells had always been used to help themselves, 
and she brought out a smart little broom and swept up the 
hearth as naturally as if there were no such person as Vir- 
ginie in the house; and then she went round the pretty 
dainty room and touched it up here and there, moving a 
table an inch or twisting a big palm into a better position, 
and such other little tender offices as showed her to the 
very best advantage. 

“1 will just run up and wash my hands, she said, 
when at length her pilgrimage brought her to a stand-still 
in front of a mirror. ‘‘ He will be here in a minute or so 
now.^^ 

There were other little touches to be done at her toilet 
before she was satisfied with herself or felt ready and fit 
for her sweetheart’s coming — her soft fair hair needed 
some alterations and her pretty blue gown, like Georgie’s, 
looked all the prettier and smarter for being brushed 
wherever she could reach it. And then she shook out a 
fine and flimsy little handkerchief with a gay-colored bor- 
der which made it almost as bright as a posy of flowers, 
and thrust it between the buttons of her gown — and then 
she took out from a little box upon her dressing-table one 
of the few treasures she possessed in the way of jewelry or 
rather of ornament, an old collar of beaten silver-work. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


31 


massive and strong, which fitted the high braided collar of 
her gown as if it had been made for the purpose. 

And then she went down-stairs and waited for his com- 
ing, wondering a little that he had not come already. It 
was then past four, and a dark afternoon even for tlie time 
of the year. “ He will be here soon now,^' she told her- 
self — he has been kept in barracks later than usual. 

She sat down before the fire, but she could not rest 
there. “ 1 may as well put the shutters in and light the 
lamps, she said aloud, and set herself at once to do it, 
with a comfortable feeling that she was doing it for him. 

She drew the curtains and lighted the lamps, arranged 
the pretty crimson shades which hung over them and gave 
the room an uncertain rosy light very charming to the 
complexion but terribly trying to the eyes and wonder- 
fully conducive to laziness of every kind. 

There were candles too set here and there, but they were 
shrouded in crimson also, or shaded by gaudy butterflies 
which looked like gigantic moths trying to poke themselves 
into a flame not a twentieth part as big as themselves — 
and Violet lighted them all, not really because they were 
wanted, but more because the task gave her something 
to do. 

But the fingers were soon idle again, for with the best 
intentions in the world to kill time it is not a long business 
to light six or eight candles, even when each one is shaded 
and the shade requires a nice adjustment. And still he 
did not come! The little clock above the cheerful fire 
rang out a tiny peal or at least part of one — half past 
four; and Violet tapped her pretty, slender fingers impa- 


32 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


tieutly on the arm of her chair and finally took up her 
novel again, as if protesting that because he was wasting 
time she need not do so any longer. 

Yet, somehow, absorbed as she had been in that very 
book all the morning, she could not interest herself in it 
in the very least now. Instead of keeping herself inter- 
ested in the woes of a fascinating heroine, her ears were 
on the stretch for the click of the garden gate and the 
sound of a quick soldierly footstep on the hard-frozen 
gravel path; so with a sigh she put the book down and 
gave herself up once more to idleness. And still he did 
not come! The little chime of the clock rang out the 
hour of five, and Virginie came to see if she would have 
tea. 

“ Not just yet, Virginie,” she answered, “ we will wait 
a little till — till madame comes home. I dare say she will 
not be long now. ” 

So Virginie went back to her kitchen and the company 
of the little maid who was her underling, to wait for ma- 
dame, and Violet stayed where she was to wait — well, not 
exactly for madame, but that is a defail and did not, of 
course, concern Virginie especially. 

‘‘ How late he is,” she thought, impatiently — and then 
all at once she heard a firm quick step upon the path with- 
out — it stopped — there was the click of the gate — the step 
upon the garden-walk, and the sound of the bell pealing 
thi‘Gugh the house. 

It was but an instant ere Virginie went quickly — all 
Virginie^s movements were quick — along the passage, and 
the door was open, but it was long enough for Violet Dar- 


A LITTLE POOL. 


33 


rell to grow sick and faint and for a violent trembling to 
seize her in every limb. Then the door opened to admit 
Virginie^s dark French face in its neat white cap — “ ilfr. 
Ponsonby,” she said. 

How she rose and greeted him, bade Virginie bring tea, 
and made a gracious gesture toward a chair, Violet Harrell 
never knew. Looking back, long afterward, she believed 
that she did these things— and she certainly kept her wits 
about her to notice that her visitor gave a keen look round 
the room, and that his face fell on perceiving that she was 
its only occupant. 

“You are all alone?^' he said, rather blankly. 

In spite of her disappointment she could have laughed 
aloud at his expression of disgust. 

“ Yes, I am quite alone. My mother is out with Mrs. 
Seymour, and Georgie is in Idleminster somewhere. 

“ She has not gone to skate eagerly. 

“ K’ot to-day — and then before she could say another 
word a carriage drew up at the gate, and a moment later 
her mother and Mrs. Seymour entered the room, bringing 
with them a gust of sharp fresh air and laughter. 

“Little minx, cried the colonel’s wife, gayly. “She 
pretended not to see us— and how devoted he looked.” 

“ Who was that?” asked Violet, never noticing that her 
mother was unmistakably trying to make her friend stop 
her revelations. 

* “ Why, little Georgie and Mr. Hills — really, the com- 

bination was too funny,” Mrs. Seymour answered. “He 
never saw us, but she did, and pretended she didn’t — they 

were looking at the photograph^n Giles’s window.” 
a 


34 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


So that was why he had not come; and she had waited 
— in vain ! 


CHAPTER V. 

THE YOUNGEST MISS DARRELL. 

“ When Fortune in her shift and change of mood, 

Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependents. 

Which labor’d after him to the mountain’s top . 

Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, 

Not one accompanying his declining foot.” 

Timon of Athens. Act 1, Be. 1. 

Nearly three years had gone by and the Darrells were 
still at the Priory; their household had not been decreased 
— on the contrary, indeed, for Madge had been at home * 
from her school in Milan for nearly six months, and 
neither Violet nor Georgie were yet married. 

It can not be said that time had dealt altogether so 
smoothly with them as their future prospects had seemed 
to promise when they took possession of the house. Four 
hundred a year, with the addition of the slender income on 
which Mrs. Darrell had managed somehow to bring up her 
daughters, if not in comfort at least in health and re- 
spectability, had seemed to them like a large fortune; but 
in reality that sum is but a small income, even when it is 
further supplemented by having no house-rent to pay. 

As might have been expected, the legacy of three hun- , 
dred pounds had not proved sufficient to cover the cost of 
putting the exceedingly dilapidated house into repair and 
also that of furnishing it, although the outlay on the house 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


35 


itself had been, so far as the decorations went, kept as low 
as possible by^eans of choosing the simplest of papers 
and the plainest of paint. Still, even by denying them- 
selves all the little luxuries of art papers and dadoes, 
friezes and dado-rails, and the seductive delights of cozy 
corners and tall Japanese screens, by doing without old 
china — even such as could be got on the “ picked-up 
principle — and by furnishing with a great deal of cretonne 
and Liberty muslin frilling to a very little substantial oak 
and rose-wood, when the various bills for making their 
home habitable came in Mrs. Darrell found that, with all 
her efforts, the amount had swelled up to something over 
four hundred pounds instead of being something just 
under three. 

And that hundred and odd pounds had hung like a 
leaden weight about the dear lady^s neck ever since; truly 
it was not a rolling stone, and somehow or other it gath- 
ered moss at a prodigious rate. 

I thought, when we turned our backs on Milan, that I 
should never know another care in the world, she sighed 
one dismal J^ovember day to Violet, who was busy with 
the body jof an evening gown, which she was trimming 
with fresh gauze. . 

“ What is it now, darling?’^ Violet asked, turning her 
beautiful placid eyes, so like what her mother’s had been, 
from the work on her knee to an ugly-looking blue paper 
in Mrs. Darrell’s hand. 

Income tax,” Mrs. Darrell answered. “And some- 
howl always feel the income tax the hardest to pay of 
anything. It seems such a shame that when we want the 


86 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


money for a dozen other things, that it should have to go 
for that. It’s like throwing it ‘into the street — it is 
really. ” 

“Yes, it does seem too bad,’’ Violet assented. “Ah! 
here is Georgie.” 

Miss Georgie came in with a rush. “ What a miserable 
fire you two always keep,” she began — then caught up the 
poker and began to stir the dull burning coals vigorously. 

“ Georgie, put the poker down; 1 can not have it!” 
Mrs. Darrell cried. “ The coals are nearly out now, Vir- 
ginie tells me; and how we are to go on getting more and 
more at the present rate I don’t know. ” 

Georgie dropped the poker and settled herself down 
upon the hearth-rug in her favorite attitude, spreading out 
her little white and useless hands to the blaze, such as it 
was. 

“ Does it ever occur to either of you,” she asked, “ that 
now we have nearly five hundred a year — quite five hun- 
dred a year, if you take the rent into consideration — that 
we are really a great deal poorer than we were in Milan?” 

“ Our ideas have grown since then,” returned Violet. 

“Yes; and of course Madge has grown into a monster 
since then,” remarked Georgie, calmly. “ When she was 
a gawky slip of a girl with frocks above her ankles, she 
could wear up our things; it must make a great diSerence 
to you, mother, to have to dress her as well as us.” 

There was a distinct tone of resentment in the girl’s 
voice against her younger sister for having had the au- 
dacity to leave her gawky girlhood behind her and grow 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


37 


up into a fine young woman. Violet made haste to do in- 
stant battle for the absent one. 

“ As Madge is not out yet, her clothes don't cost much 
— and really, Georgie, my dear, now that you have 
broached the subject, don't you think it would be a very 
simple way of economizing if you had our gowns cut down 
for you? You are so very small, you know, that you could 
have fresh seams everywhere." 

“ //" gasped Georgie — “1 wear somebody's — any- 
body's — Madge^s old clothes? Why, Vi, my dear, you 
mtist be dreaming or out of your mind to suggest such a 
thing." 

‘‘ Not at all," returned Violet, coolly — “ Madge had a 
good long spell at wearing yours — so why shouldn’t you 
turn and turn about? It would only be fair. And, after 
all — what is there so very wonderful about you that you 
should invariably have the best of everything?" 

I don't have the best of everything," retorted Georgie 
— “ but I do get the best time when 1 go out, because I've 
got a contented mind, which is more than any of you have. 
1 had a lovely time last night — just lovely." 

‘‘ How many times did you go in to supper?" inquired 
Violet, holding the bodice a little away the better to get 
an idea of certain folds of the pretty sheeny gauze with 
which she was bedecking it. 

“Oh! only three." 

“ Only three — Ah! here is Madge. Madge, do you 
know if Virginie is going to bring tea?" 

“ I heard the tea-spoons rattling just now," Madge an- 
swered. “ Why, mother dearie, what's the matter?" 


38 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


“ Income tax/’ returned Mrs. Darrell, wearily. But 
where have you been, child? You are blue with the cold.” 

“ In my room, dear.” 

‘‘ Horridly extra vag^t 1 call it using another room and 
burning more candles,” said Georgie, possessing herself of 
the poker again and patting the fire here and there so as 
to coax a few extra rays out of its dull heart. 

Madge laughed outright. “ It’s what you’ll never do, 
Georgie, my dear,” she said, with some sarcasm. ‘‘ Your 
mUier is rather to sit in the highest place and take care you 
keep the fire from every one else and every one else from 
the fire — tliafs your line, isn’t it?” 

“ A very sensible line, too,” said Georgie, carelessly, 
“much more sensible than going about fancying one’s too 
good for this world altogether, and daubing one’s fingers 
with ink to show that one is literary — and wasting good 
pens and ink and paper. ” 

Madge unceremoniously pushed her small sister to one 
side and plumped down on the hearth-rug beside her. 
“ Have you been to Idleminster this afternoon, Georgie?” 
she inquired, mildly. 

“ Yes,” said Georgie, rather curtly. 

“ It "isn’t a very promising sort of day, is it?” Madge 
went on, in dulcet tones. “ Did you see many people you 
knew ?” 

“ Ho — not many,” Georgie answered. 

“ I saw Flora West go past just atter lunch,” Madge 
persisted. 

“ I saw her,” said Georgie, unwillingly. 

“ Did you walk home with her?” 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


39 


“ Then who was she with?^^ 

‘‘ She didnT see me at all/^ replied Georgie, evading 
the question after a way peculiarly her own. 

“Did you see Teddy St. Oswald?” Madge went on, 
after a mementos pause. 

“ No — he^s on duty to-day. 

“ Or Geoff Hastings?” 

“ No — ” with a doleful shake of the head which made 
all the feathery golden hair glitter in the fire-light. 

“ Or Joey Lancaster?” 

“Yes; I did see him,” with a frown. 

“ Ah! — well, that would be some consolation to you for 
your walk.” 

“ He didn^t see me,” admitted Georgie, in a very small 
voice. 

• “Then he was with Flora West!” Madge rapped out 
sharply. “ And so you come home as cross as two sticks, 
you little transparent humbug, and find fault with every- 
body about you. Upon my word, I think you ought to be 
shaken,” and forthwith Madge gave the little beauty such 
a vigorous nudge with her strong young elbow that a com- 
plete shipwreck was the immediate result, for Georgie, be- 
ing taken unawares and sitting with her hands clasped 
about her knees, was sprawling on the floor the next mo- 
ment. 

Madge jumped up laughing immoderately. 

“ Here is Virginie — how 1 do want my tea,” she cried, 
in her fresh young hearty voice. “lam simply famish- 
ing.” 


40 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


“ Leave a little for somebody else/' put in Georgie, 
tartly, as she gathered herself together and settled all her 
trimmings and ornaments to her liking. ‘‘ And don't 
knock me down again like that, if you please, Madge. I 
don't like it." 

“You should have held your ground better, my child," 
Madge laughed. “ By the bye, apropos of dear Joey, did 
you hear that lovely story about him the other day?" 

“No. What story?" forgetting her resentment in her 
eagerness to hear what Madge might have to tell. “ About 
me?" 

“ You? No, not exactly. It was Major Gooch's little 
boy who went with his mother to the barrack children's 
Christmas-tree last year. Major Gooch had a bad cold 
and Tom went into his bedroom full of all he had seen and 
done, particularly of Joey Lancaster, whom Tom did not 
recognize, for he had, with his usual good-nature, got 
himself up as an Italian organ-grinder, monkey and all. 
‘The man,’ he said, excitedly, ‘had an organ — and a 
monkey; and first the man played and then the monkey 
danced on the top of the organ — and then when the man 
had finished playing, the monkey jumped down, took his 
father's hand, and they went away.' It's a lovely story, 
especially when you happen to know Joey," said Madge, 
with a mischievous gleam in the brown depths of her great 
somber eyes. 

“ Joey's not a bit like a monkey," Georgie hashed out. 

“ No — no," soothingly; “ but 'tis a pretty story, all the 
same, don't you think?" 

“ No, I don't," cried Georgie, furiously, “ and I be- 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


41 


lieve you just made it up out of sheer spite, because Joey 
never takes any notice of you. Like a monkey, indeed! 
He^s not half much like a monkey as you are?^^ 

“ Children — children, put in Mrs. Darrell, hastily, 
“ do not tease one another so. What can there be about 
that very ugly young man to interest either of you?^^ 

‘‘ I heard the gate open,^^ added Violet, “ so smooth 
your ruffled plumes, Georgie, and bless the fact that 
there’s no likelihood of your ever being taken for the mon- 
key’s mother,” and Georgie had to pull herself together 
and obey, for she was noted throughout Idleminster as a 
gay, bright, breezy little girl, always as full of life and go 
as a freshly opened bottle of champagne — and it would not 
do to lose her character and be found in the bosom of her 
family in unmistakable sulks. All the same, it was not a 
very easy task when that little imp of mischief sat throned 
in Madge’s big brown eyes and she had been backed up by 
two such Job’s comforters as her mother and Violet. And 
almost before she had got her ruffled plumage straight 
again, Virginie opened the door and announced, ‘‘ Mis- 
tarre Lancaster!” 

CHAPTER VL 

THE WHITE DRAGOONS. 

“ I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another 
man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he 
hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argu- 
ment of his own scorn by falling in love.” 

Much Ado About Nothing. Act 2, 8c. 3. 

Somehow or other, Mrs. Darrell got over the income 
tax trouble, and also the coal billj so the coal-house at the 


43 


A LITTLE FOOL, , 


Priory was once more full to overflowing and Georgie was 
able to repose her shivering little person in the very front 
of a blazing fire and to stir and smash the burning mass to 
her heart’s content. It was a distinct extravagance on her 
mother’s part to allow it, of course, but it was really more 
as a defensive measure than anything else. For when 
there were no men to the front to make the little beauty’s 
plumes lie just the right way and glint and gleam like a 
burnished pigeon in the sunshine, there was no method of 
keeping her quiet and in a humor of genial complacency 
equal to leaving her to work her own sweet will upon a fire 
of goodly size — and somehow, if Georgie was not well 
pleased with her circumstances and surroundings, there 
was not much chance of any ease or comfort for any one 
else who happened to be living under the same roof. 

Early in December there came an invitation for the 
annual ball given by the officers at the cavalry barracks, 
and great was the excitement which it caused in the house- 
hold at the Priory. 

The White Dragoons had not been quartered very long 
at Idleminster, and two regiments had had a spell there 
since the Eoyal Horse went off to India. But, as is cus- 
tomary in garrison towns, the friends of regiments which 
had been there were passed on to the new-comers; and, 
although the Darrells knew but few of the officers as yet— 
leave- season having set in almost immediately after they 
settled down in Ambleditch Barracks — they had duly called 
on the married people and were on fairly intimate terms 
with several of them. So, when the first batch of invita- 
tions went out the president of the ball committee was 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


43 


bidden by more than one voice to put down “ the widow 
with the three pretty duaghters, who lives up in Amble- 
ditch. Her name? Oh I — er — Dallas or Darrell. Yes — 
that is it — Darrell. 

“ I shall be obliged to have a new frock for it/^ re- 
marked Miss Georgie, when their first little excitement had 
subsided. 

“ Out of ycur allowance, then, Georgie,^^ said her 
mother, sharply. 

“ Out of my allowance! Well, I don^t see how that’s to 
be done, unless I get it at Hopper’s and pay for it by and 
by,” returned Georgie, carelessly. 

“ And that, you know, I strongly object to,” exclaimed 
her mother. “It is surely bad enough that I have debts 
which I can not get rid of or clear off, try and save and 
skimp as I will, without you girls hampering me by run- 
ning up dress-bills for which I am responsible. And you 
have a very pretty dress, Georgie — you have only worn 
your blue three times.” 

“It has got quite historic by this time,” cried Georgie, 
with a superb air of disdain — then put on a soft little coax- 
ing air and sighed: “ Mammie dear, you squeeze a 
new frock out for me — just for once?” 

“ When you came out, Georgie, my dear,” said Mrs. 
Darrell, sadly, “ I gave nearly ten pounds for a white silk 
gown for you, over and above your allowance. Madge has 
never had an allowance yet. She has contentedly worn 
anything that I could give her; but now that she is com- 
ing out, 1 really must make her equal to you and Violet. 


44 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


And how I am to afiord a white silk gown for her, I do 
not know. 

“ I donH want you to allord it, mother,^’ Madge put in, 
hurriedly; “ I will send up to Liberty's and get some of 
their pretty soft Indian silk, and Vi will help me to make 
it — won't you, Vi?" . 

‘‘ Of course I will," replied Violet, promptly. 

“ It won't cost a third of ten pounds," Madge went on, 
hopefully, “ and those Indian silks wear beautifully; it 
will last me for ages, and I will manage it out of my allow- 
ance, dear; so don't worry about it. " 

“ Then you'll be able to manage a new frock for me 
very easily," put in Georgie, complacently, in her delight 
at the idea of new garments forgetting to utter her protest 
against the absurdity — as she called it — of Madge's being 
introduced into society at all. 

However, Mrs. Darrell stood her ground firmly on the 
subject of the new frock, and Georgie (when it was plainly 
intimated to her that if she did not feel inclined to make 
the historic blue — which she had worn three times — serve 
for that occasion also, she might successfully solve the 
difficulty by staying at home) quietly, after her way, for- 
got all h^r declarations that it was simply impossible to 
wear it, and having touched it up here and there, and bid- 
den her devoted slave, Joey Lancaster, send her the 
freshest and costliest of hot-house fiowers to wear in her 
hair and for her breast-knot, dressed herself for the ball as 
gayly as if the thought of a new frock had never entered 
her mind at all. Indeed, being ready and waiting, she 
condescended to walk round tall and stately Madge, who 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


45 


looked classic and beautiful in her clinging Indian gown, 
and informed her that she really looked very nice — very 
nice and sweet. “ Indeed, 1 shouldn't at all wonder, 
she said, graciously, “ if you don^t have a very good time, 
although, of course, you don^t know any men, and youh-e 
so immensely tall that a good many who would admire you 
otherwise, would hardly like to ask you to dance with 
them.^^ 

Madge burst out laughing. “ Well, if that is so, I shall 
not be able to poach on your preserves, Georgie — and any 
way, I should think your friend, the monkey's father, 
would hardly have the audacity to show himself off in a 
waltz with me." 

“You have the knack of saying disagreeable things, 
Madge," said Georgie, with supreme disdain. “ I should 
think he will scarcely ask you to dance when there are so 
many women he knows. Besides, he would have sent you 
flowers like mine," bending to lock at the costly sprays 
upon her bosom, “ if he had thought «« 2 /^hing about 
you." 

“ Poor child," laughed Madge. “ Pm glad he saved 
his money. " 

But for once Georgie was proof against any manner of 
teasing, and the cab was already waiting at the gate. Vir- 
ginie came out with the strip of carpet which she always 
put down for her young ladies on gala nights, and the next 
moment they were rattling away in the direction of the 
town. 

The ball was — as all large dances given in Idleminster 
were — held in the Assembly Rooms; and truly they were a 


46 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


lovely sight that night; enough for the moment to take 
Madge's breath away almost, though she was careful to 
hide from Georgie's observant eyes that she was in any way 
impressed by the, to her, new scene. In the street out- 
side the rooms, stretching away to right and left of the 
entrance door, were some thirty stalwart dragoons on 
horseback, shrouded in their big cloaks and bearing each a 
flaming torch. In the entrance itself stood half a dozen 
troopers, to give any aid that might be necessary; and 
within, the vestibule was lined with soldiers in full-dress, 
who leaned upon their carbines and might have been 
wooden dummies so still and motionless they stood, had it 
not been for the ever-watchful gleam of their eyes from 
under the peaks of their brass pelmets. 

Then at the entrance to the ball-room itself stood two 
gorgeous personages, resplendent with gold lace and each 
of a rotundity of person and a florescence of countenance 
which spoke volumes for the ease of the life they led. One 
of these, the senior troop sergeant-major, held a huge sil- 
ver waiter on which ball programmes were heaped, the 
other — the regimental sergeant-major — (an awful swell, 
mind you!) received from each party of guests their card 
of invitation and bawled out the different names thereon, 
for the edification of the group of officers within who were 
waiting to bid them welcome. 

When Georgie Darrell had got thus far, she forgot alto- 
gether to keep her eye on Madge any longer, and with a 
sigh of delight gave herself up to the pleasures of the even- 
ing. In a moment she' was surrounded by a bevy of very 
young gentlemen in uniform, several militia subalterns. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


47 


two men of the Blankshire Regiment, who were doing a. 
spell oiy musketry-practice with the Ohalkshire Regiment, 
which was represented by Georgie^s especial favorites, 
Teddy Si Oswald, Geoff Hastings, and the redoubtable fa- 
ther of the monkey, Joey Lancaster himself. 

With a business-like air, she dispensed her favors — a 
waltz to one, a polka to another, a square to a third, and 
so on; and then there was aJiue and cry after the privilege 
of taking her in to supper and for the honor of any extra 
dances there might be. And finally Georgie went off to 
join the first dance with the redoubtable Joey, with a card 
scribbled over in every direction, every space filled and nob 
a dance left to give, even if a royal prince should ask her 
for it. 

“ I must just look after my little sister, she remarked, 
in her most confidential and sisterly tones, to Joey, when 
they had taken one turn down the room. “This is her 
first step into the giddy world, you know.^^ 

“ Yes, I suppose so; all the same, nobody would take 
her for your little sister,^^ said Joey — “ she looks ^ea7's 
older than you do.’^ 

“Not really,^' simpered Georgie; then opened her eyes 
with their most innocent and baby expression. “ Why, 
w/w is she dancing with?'^ for Madge, with her clinging 
ivory robes showing off well against a White Dragoon uni- 
form, was swung slowly past them. 

“ Oh, that’s Lesley,” answered Joey. “ Awful swell 
Lesley is, or thinks himself. Your sister ought to feel 
herself flattered by his dancing with her.” 

“ I dare say she does,” returned Georgie rather tartly. 


48 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


for it was gall and wormwood to her to see Madge thus 
superbly matched with a partner. 

Joey gave an uneasy glance at her — there was an acidity 
in her tone which he had not often heard before, and 
which he felt a trifle afraid of, not knowing whether it was 
due to the little lady’s ruffled dignity at his presuming to 
make such a remark about her sister, or whether she did 
not like to see that same sister dancing with that particu- 
lar partner. 

As a matter of fact, it was from neither cause that 
Georgie’s tones had turned so suddenly acid, but simply 
and solely because without a thought she had, after her 
custom, not to say pride, let her programme be filled up 
within a few minutes of entering the room; and then to 
see Madge, the despised younger one, whom she would 
have kept as a Cinderella at home, who had come to this 
ball in spite of her, who had worn her old frocks until she 
got too big to get into them any longer — to see her danc- 
ing the very first dance with such a man instead of sitting 
meekly under her mother’s wing and wistfully envying 
her! And then to realize that her full programme was 
not worth one such dance, and that she had not the name 
of a single White Dragoon upon it; oh! it was — it was — 
“ Let us take another turn,” she said, crossly. 

So tl^y took another turn, and Georgie tried resolutely 
to avoid seeing what Madge was doing, and to appear as if 
she was having an unusually good time to herself; to ac- 
complish which she took a more than ordinarily tender 
tone to Joey. 

“ Give you another,” she repeated, taking his pro- 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


49 


gramme. “ Wliy — what's this? Miss W , Miss 

W Miss W . Joey! Do you mean to say that 

you asked her before you saw what dances I was going to 
give you? Three waltzes, and you only asked me for 
two!!!" 


CHAPTER VII. 

AT A EEGIMEHTAL BALL. 

“ Trifles light as air ' 

Are to the jealous conflrmations strong 
As proofs of holy writ.” 

Othello. Act 3. Sc. 3. 

“ You only asked 7ne for two!" said Georgie, looking at 
the wretched Joey with her eyes wide open, more open in- 
deed than he had ever seen them before. 

The other fellows were so desperately keen after your 
programme," the poor young man stammered, his face as 
scarlet as his tunic, “ and — and — I didn’t think you’d 
cafe to give me more than two.’’ 

Georgie, after another searching glance at him, turned 
her attention again to his programme, which she still held 
in her little shaking hand. ‘‘ And you asked her for sup? 
per," she said, in a very low voice. 

“ I didn’t," Joey blurted out. ‘‘ I — at least — that is — 
she — er — " 

“ Asked you — and you couldn’t resist her — that Grena- 
dier!’’ exclaimed Georgie, in a scathing whisper. “ Verv 
well, you shall give her the seventh as well!" and forth- 
with she took the little pencil and ran a deep score through 


50 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


her own name, which was written on the space opposite to 
the seventh dance on the list. 

“ Georgie!^’ he cried, imploringly. 

“ I will go back to my mother, if you please, Mr. Lan- 
caster,^^ said Georgie, in supreme contempt. 

‘‘ 1 won^t let you off that dance, he urged, trying the 
effect of a little bounce upon her. 

But Georgie was an adept at ‘ ‘ bounce herself, and 
the effect of his poor attempt was simply nil. “ I will go 
back to my mother, if you please, she said with freezing 
politeness. 

I will do anything if you will only forgive me,^^ he 
pleaded, abjectly. 

“ Will you throw her over?’^ asked Georgie, her anger 
wavering. 

“Throw her over — a lady? Oh! wouldnT that be a 
caddish sort of thing to do?’^ he stammered. “Oh! 
come, now, Georgie, a fellow would deserve kicking if he 
did such a thing; and you’d- be the first to say so if you 
weren’t angry — you know you would. ” 

“ I am going back now,” said Georgie, in a furious 
voice. “ If you won’t go with me — I have asked you 
twice — I can go alone. ” 

Thus the miserable Joey had no choice but to offer the 
offended little beauty his arm and escort her across the 
room to the raised seat where Mrs. Darrell, with several of 
her friends, was sitting. 

“ Will you not have an ice?” he asked, as they passed 
the refreshment- table, which was laid out under the music 
gallery. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


51 


“Thank you — no/^ returned Georgie, frigidly. In 
spite of her anger, I think she would hardly have been 
able to resist the bribe of an ice, even at the recreant Joey^s 
hands, had she not caught sight of Madge, who was met- 
ing out dances with evidently a none too lavish hand to 
two officers of the White Dragoons, while Lesley, the one 
with whom she had danced first, stood by, patiently hold- 
ing her fan and her ice-plate. The sight was enough to 
set the wrathful Georgie even against ices, and she 
marched resolutely to her mother's side and then dismissed 
her squire with a stiS little bow which made the lad's 
heart thump within his tight tunic as if he were going to 
have a fit of hysterics. 

And after that Joey went mad — at least, years after, in 
looking back over that night's doings, he always believed 
sincerely and truthfully that he was entirely unaccount- 
able for everything that he did. The same kind of feeling 
must have been working in little Georgie Darrell’s breast, 
for she too had but little remembrance afterward of what 
had happened, other than a confused dream of a series of 
more desperate and violent flirtations than she had ever in- 
dulged in in all her life before. Little fool, little fool; 
but she waited until that seventh dance was over, waited 
in secret impatience and anxiety to see whether Joey would 
come and claim it or not, waited and saw him sail out 
along the polished floor with that — that — Grenadier — that 
Cochin-China chicken — and then she grew reckless and 
cared not what she did. 

Poor little Georgie! and to add fuel to the fire of her 
misery, she was conscious all the time that Madge 


52 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


was having such a lovely time, such a» lovely, lovdy 
time. 

That was true enough! For Lesley, having been fairly 
startled by the beauty and grace of Mrs. DarrelFs young- 
est daughter, had, after obtaining an introduction to her, 
promptly secured a goodly share of the dances on her un- 
filled programme. “ That^s the supper - dance, he re- 
marked as he scribbled his initials against a certain waltz — 
‘‘ and you wonT let any other fellow take you to supper, 
will you?^' 

“ Certainly not,^^ Madge replied, with a laugh, “ though 
I doiiT suppose any one else will be particularly anxious to 
do so,^' for it must be remembered that Madge had gone 
to this ball with but a poor opinion of her own attractive- 
ness toward the menfolk, having been well coached by 
Georgie as to the likelihood of her not getting more than 
three our four dances at most. “ Though, of course,’^ 
ended the little beauty in her most sisterly and condescend- 
ing tones, “ Vi and I will do our best to get you partners; 
only, you know, men donT exactly like to be chivvied into 
dancing with girls to oblige their relations, especially at a 
big affair like this, where there’s no hostess. to be civil to— 7 
they like choosing their own partners, don’t you see?’^ 

And Madge did see— or thought she did — and went off 
to the ball in humble hopes of getting, by great good 
luck, a dance or two at most. J udge then of her surprise 
when she found herself, before she had been in the room 
ten minutes, faced by this splendid apparition — I use the 
word advisedly, for Mr. Lesley had not become real flesh 
and blood to her as yet — in all the glory of his white 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


53 


tunic profusely embroidered with gold, with his shiny 
long boots which made an experienced beholder wonder 
how in the world he managed to get into them, with his 
smooth crop of sunny hair, his brave gray eyes and the 
most pleasant smile Madge thought she had ever seen — 
imagine her surprise when she heard him supplicating, 
“You won^t let any other fellow take you in to supper, 
will you?^-^ 

Of course it was very pleasant for a beginning; and, in 
her simplicity, Madge answei*ed that she did not think any 
one else would be particularly anxious to do so! 

“ Oh, won^t they though! You wait and see,'^ said Mr. 
Lesley. 

And by and by Madge did see,^ But by that time she 
had got over the splendid apparition sort of feeling and 
had already begun to think that this Mr. Lesley was the 
most utterly charming man she had ever known in her 
whole life — and altogether she was so delightfully and per- 
fectly happy that she never noticed little Georgie^s vaga- 
ries or perceived the glances of concentrated fury which 
that little lady kept casting at her. And at last it all 
came to an end and poor tired Mrs. Darrell insisted upon 
taking her daughters away. 

“ How good you are to have stayed so long,^^ said Les- 
ley to her in his most winning tones, “ more especially as 
it is Miss Madge^s first large dance. I hope you won't be 
utterly knocked up by it; and, by the bye, I think you 
said I might come and inquire for /ou to-morrow, did you 
not?" 

“ We shall be charmed to see you," said Mrs. Darrell, 


54 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


kindly — the elder ladies generally were kind to Lesley, as 
well as the younger ones. 

“ And will you be charmed too?^^ he murmured to 
Madge as he took her hand. 

Surely 1 shall, she answered, frankly. 

Three of the four pairs of eyes that looked out from the 
dingy old cab, rested admiringly on him as he stood on the 
pavement, with the garish light from the torches flaring 
down upon his gorgeous uniform of white and gold, and 
on his sunny head. “What a handsome fellow!’’ cried 
Mrs. Darrell, when they had turned the corner of the 
street. 

“ Lesley is his name, Madge?” asked Violet. 

“He is satisfled ’ enough with himself,” remarked 
Georgie, tartly, “ for a whole regiment. I hate a man of 
that form. ” 

“Oh! he’s not your form at all!” said Madge, calmly. 

Geoigie turned upon her in a fury. “ What do you 
mean? My form — what is my form, pray?” 

“Why, Joey Lancaster, of course,” replied Madge, 
without an instant’s hesitation, and then was horrifled to 
see the gay and brilliant little Georgie suddenly burst out 
crying. 

-How shall I describe the scene which followed? Well, I 
hardly know! Georgie sobbed and raved and stormed, and 
when at length they reached home, she began quite from 
the beginning again, and sobbed and raved and stormed 
yet more. Nor could any one of them extract from her 
what was the actual cause of the trouble. 

“ Did you quarrel with Joey?” Vi asked,- holding one 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


55 


little hot hand in hers and speaking in the most soothing 
accents she could comniand. “ Was that it?^^ 

“ I — I — began Georgie, then burst out afresh, and 
speech was stopped for the time. 

“ 1 thought something was wrong when she caine back 
to me after the first dance, put in her mother. “ Come, 
tell us about it, dear child, it will relieve your mind.^^ , 

“ Oh, cut the little toad, and have no more of his airs 
and graces, cried Madge, who had kept a full share of 
her usual common sense in spite of the commotion. 

‘‘ 1 canH cut him,^^ cried Georgie, fretfully, then began 
to moan as if bodily agony had suddenly been added to the 
mental anguish which was tormenting her. 

“ GanH cut him?'^ repeated Vi. “Why, Georgie, you 
don^t mean to say you care anything about him, that — 

“ I hate him!^’ Georgie burst out, fiercely. 

“ Then why can’t you cut him? You are not surely 
thinking of marrying — why, Georgie, my dear, it^s impos- 
sible— the boy can not marry any one — he hasnT a penny 
to bless himself with.'’^ 

“ I’m not going to let her have him,” muttered the lit- 
tle beauty, sulkily. 

Her ! Who?” in utter dismay. 

“ Why, Flora West, of course. She’s got heaps of 
money, and — and — ” 

“ And if she likes to marry him, a very good thing for 
you,” put in Violet, decidedly. “Why, Georgie, you 
must have taken leave of your senses! You marry Joey 
Lancaster! — you, with your appearance and your tastes; 
you, who have always said nothing should induce you to 


56 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


marry any one not rolling in money; who have com- 
plained so bitterly of our small 'means; who want 
horses and carriages, diamonds and gowns without end, 
men-servants and maid-servants; and will you end with 
three hundred a year and Joey Lancaster? Why, it is pre- 
posterous !’' 

During this — which was quite a lengthy speech for Vio- 
let — Georgie had somewhat pulled herself together and 
now sat on the hearth-rug resting her elbow on her moth- 
er’s knee and picking restlessly at the now faded flowers 
on the bodice of her pretty gown. 

“ I did not sa^ that I was going to marrg Joey,’’ she 
said, half sullenly, half unwillingly; “ but, any way, I’m 
not going to let that Flora West triumph over me. Oh! 
if you’d seen the way she looked at me to-night! it was 
enough to make one’s blood boil! It was! And he didn’t 
care — after the first — not a scrap. But I’ll pay him out 
for it, see if I don’t; just you see if I don’t,” catching her 
breath with an angiy sob. 

“ I have no doubt you will,” laughed Vi. 

“Oh!” chimed in Madge, from the lofty height of 
seven White Dragoon partners — which, though she did not 
know it, rankled most bitterly of all in Georgie’s gentle 
heart — “ the little toad isn’t worth it; take my advice, 
and — cut him!” 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


57 


CHAPTER VIIL 

GEOKGIE^S WEATH. 

The life of man is intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys 
and sorrows, with pleasures and with pains — 

Burton. 

As might have been expected, Georgie woke up the next 
morning with a racking headache, and all the art and pa- 
tience of the household were brought into play in an en- 
deavor to give her relief. 

“Poor little thing, she is so excitable,’’ Mrs. Darrell 
said, with indulgent pity, “ and really these boys are not 
worth a ruffled feeling.” 

“ ITl take her some tea and dry toast,” said Madge. 
“ She’ll be better by the afternoon— she always is.” 

Madge had a delightfully clear way of giving utterance 
to plain unvarnished truths, which quite took, in this in- 
stance, all the gilt off the gingerbread of Georgie’s head- 
ache. It left no room for romance or even pity, in fact; 
neither Mrs. Darrell nor Violet could shut their eyes to the 
certainty that Georgie’s indisposition was due in stern 
retributive justice to her own folly, that she was making 
the most of it, not to say giving herself up to the full en- 
joyment of it, and that— men visitors being expected that 
afternoon — it was a moral certainty that toward four 
o’clock in the day she would find herself recovered of her 
malady, and would descend from her bower to shed the 
sweetness and light of lier presence upon the occupants of 
the Priory drawing-room. 


58 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


Mind, she said in actual words no more than I have put 
down; but she uttered the words as a plain and clear 
statement of fact, as a distinct forecasting of events which 
conveyed these ideas to her listeners. ‘ ‘ I think a cup of 
tea would do her good,^^ said Mrs. Darrell, with a little sigh. 

However, it was not, after all, the tea which had the 
desired effect upon the interesting little invalid, for when 
two o^clock came, the head was no better and the groans 
no less frequent. Then Virginie came to the rescue. 

“ I have made la petite tisane,^ ^ announced. ‘‘ 1 
am going now to give it to her.^^ And forthwith Virginie 
emptied out of a saucepan into a large cup a villainous- 
looking and equally villainous-smelling mixture which 
seemed, to an ordinary perception, nasty enough to drive 
out any kind of malady from any human body which could 
be got to hold it. And, armed with this, Virginie marched 
upstairs and stood firmly over Georgie while she drank it, 
even to the very dregs. 

Now when Georgie got into Virginie’s merciless grip, 
she knew by the bitter experience of the past that it was 
useless to try and resist her — therefore she drank, or at 
least gulped the hot tisane as best she could, and how 
thoroughly she regretted not having cast off the shackles 
of her headache and got up and about the house, I think 
nobody who had not enjoyed the privilege of tasting one of 
the good Virginie's tisanes could really credit. Any way, 
it is certain that when the clock struck the hour of three, 
she obeyed Virginie^s instructions to the letter and got out 
of bed and dressed herself. It might be that she was — as 
she said — better, well, in fact; or it might be that she 


A LITTLE POOL. 


59 


stood in wholesome dread of another portion of tisane — 1 
should not like positively to say which; but certain it is 
that Madge^s prophecy came true, and before four o’clock 
Georgie was in the drawing-room cozily established in front 
of the fire and girt with the irresistible charms of all her 
little invalid airs and graces. 

She had not been there more than half an hour before 
Lesley and another man of the White Dragoons put in an 
appearance, when straightway she forgot how ill she had 
been all the day, and bloomed out into her very own self. 

But somehow Mr. Lesley did not seem to see the attract- 
iveness of her little ways and devoted himself to Mrs. Dar- 
rell and Madge with a blindness to the coquettish little 
beauty’s charms which made her set him down in her own 
mind as a great stupid oaf, who did not know a pretty or 
smart girl when he saw one. 

And then one or two ladies came in and one or two more 
men, partners of Violet’s these, and last of all, Georgie’s 
especial friends Teddy St. Oswald and young Hastings. 
But there came no Joey Lancaster! 

Somebody asked Madge after awhile if she would not 
sing something, a request which was very quickly backed 
up by Lesley, who declared that he adored music, espe- 
cially vocal music. So Madge sat down at the piano and 
sung a sad and tender little ballad such as stayed in Les- 
ley’s heart afterward in a most unaccountable way: 

“ It came with the merry May, love, 

It bloom’d with a summer prime, 

In a dying year’s decay, love, 

It brighten’d the fading time; 


60 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


I thought it would last for a life, love, 

But it went with the winter snow, 

Only a year ago, love. 

Only a year ago! 

“ ’Twas a plant with a deeper root, love, 

Than the blighting eastern tree, 

For it grew in my heart, and the fruit, love. 

Was bitter and painful to me; 

The poison is yet in my brain, love. 

And the thorn in my heart, for you know, 

’Twas only a year ago, love. 

Only a year ago! 

“ It never can bloom any more, love. 

For the plow hatl^ passed over the spot. 

And the furrow hath left its score, love. 

In the place where the flowers are not; 

’Tis ^one like a tale that is told, love. 

Like a dream that hath fleeted, although 
’Twas only a year ago, love. 

Only a year ago!” 

A man less completely taken with a girl might have 
fancied that she was singing from the very lowest depths 
of her heart; but the idea never occurred to Lesley, partly 
because he was so convinced of her freedom from by -gone 
affairs of any kind, partly because he was so struck with 
the expression on the beautiful face of the eldest daughter 
of the house. 

During the song, her mind having gone back to the ab- 
sent Joey — whom for at least an hour past she had abso- 
lutely forgotten — Georgie^s expression changed, and she 
was now looking the very picture of abject deserted mis- 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


61 


ery. Not in the least did Lesley know what it meant, but 
he saw the sudden assumption of dejection and grief, and 
as neither r61e in the smallest suited Miss Georgie^s style 
of beauty, felt only an inordinate desire to laugh. Then 
his eyes wandered back to the elder girl’s sad face, and he 
realized that there was a grief as real and as lasting as the 
other was counterfeit and sham. 

And then suddenly an idea presented itself to him — 
“ Miss Madge,” he said, leaning his arms on the piano, 
when the murmur of thanks which ran round the room 
had subsided, 'and speaking in a voice intended only for 
her ear, “ were not the Eoyal Horse quartered here before 
they went to India?” 

“ 1 really don’t know,” Madge answered, looking at 
Georgie for information. 

- Yes, they were,” said Georgie, forgetting her dejec- 
tion. “ Why?” 

‘‘ Did you know a man called Hills in that regiment?” 
he asked. 

“ Very well indeed,” said Georgie, gayly. ‘‘ Such a 
charming fellow! We all liked him immensely,” then 
turned round to Violet. “ You remember Mr. Hills, Vi, 
don’t you? — of the Royal Horse.” 

From the look which leaped into Violet’s lovely eyes, 
Lesley saw that her sister need not have added the last 
piece of information. “ Yes, 1 remember him,” she said, 
in a strained, unnatural voice. “ Why do you ask?” 

“ Because he is an intimate friend of mine, that is all,” 
replied Lesley, carelessly. “ By the bye— you know that 
he is at home with the depot now, don’t you?” 


62 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


Violet shook her head. “ 'No, I did not know it/’ she 
said, and turned abruptly away. 

“ How was it he did not come to the ball last night?” 
demanded Georgie. “ Did not you ask him?” 

“Oh, yes, I asked him, but I could, not get him to 
come,” Lesley answeied. “Poor chap, I fancy he had 
some sort of a let-dowyi when he was quartered here, for he 
answered that he hated balls and loathed Idleminster more 
than any other spot on the whole face of the earth. ” 

“ Idleminster can get on very well without him,” re- 
sponded Georgie, very sharply. “ I know for my part I 
never could bear him; he was never any friend of mine, 
and I used to wonder how my sister could endure talking 
to him.” 

“ Your sister was not engaged to him ever, was she?” 
Lesley asked, in a very diffident kind of tone. “ I mean 
-^please don’t think me very rude to ask such a question, 
but — but she seemed to turn away as if — as if — ” In 
truth, he did not know how to go on, though he was long- 
ing to get certain information and did not know how to 
manage it. 

“ Oh, no!” replied Georgie, prompily. “ My sister 
has never been engaged to any one — never. There was 
never anything of that kind between her and Mr. Hills. ” 

“ Hot so sure about that,” was Lesley’s comment to 
himself — and then, after a few words more with Madge, he 
betook himself away, having asked and obtained permis- 
sion to come again. 

One by one the visitors followed his example, and the 
Darrells were left alone, when Georgie promptly an- 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


63 


nounced that the eftort to keep up had made her head ache 
worse than ever, and that she should go and lie down on 
the dining-room sofa, and see if she could not get a little 
nap! So off she went, leaving her mother and sisters in 
possession of the drawing-room. 

“ The valiant Joey never came to make it up,^^ said 
Violet, smiling. “ What a quarrel it must have been!^’ 

‘‘Oh! he was afraid,^^ returned Madge; “but she will 
go out on some trifling excuse or other to-morrow, and 
she’ll bring him back in triumph — see if she does not.” 

• And again Madge proved herself to be a true prophet, 
for, sure enough, as soon as lunch was fairly over the fol- 
lowing day, Georgie- set herself to find out the plans of the 
others for spending the afternoon, and having discovered 
them, announced that her headache was not yet gone and 
that a walk would do her more good than going to a stuffy 
musical at-home in stupid Ambleditch, and she meant to 
go out by herself- Madge gave Violet a very meaning 
“ I-told-you-so ” glance, and the little beauty was allowed 
to go her own way without let or hinderance, while the 
others went off to their party without her. 

“ No Joey Lancaster here, you see,” murmured Madge 
to Violet, when they happened to meet in the tea-room. 
“ And that absurd Flora West is watching the door in an 
agony.” 

Violet raised her eyebrows. “ What can either of them 
be thinking of?” she whispered, in reply. 

“ HeTl be there when we get home,” asserted Madge. 
“Oh! thanks so much; yes, 1 take both sugar and cream 
— horridly unfashionable, isn’t it?” 


64 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


And again she was right in her prophecy; for when they 
got home Virginie was just carrying the little red tea-tray 
out of the drawing-room, and the valiant Joey was lying at 
his ease in the biggest chair the room contained. 

“Oil! here you are, you dissipated people, cried 
Georgie, in her airiest manner. “ Well, did you have a 
good time? I almost wished I had gone after all; but 1 
met Mr. Lancaster in town, and he came back to tea with 
me, so I haven^t been dull!^^ 


CHAPTEE IX. 

THE FIHGER AGAIN. 

Lying sometimes assumes the form of equivocation or moral 
dodging — a kind of lying which a Frenchman once described as 
walking round about the truth. 

S. Smiles. 

For a few days all went smooth and fair with the house- 
maid at the Priory. Georgie was as soft as silk and as 
sweet as honey to every one and, while her mother, to- 
gether with Violet and Madge, deplored the renewed inti- 
macy with the redoubtable Joey Lancaster, not seeing what 
good could come of it in any way, they yet were not slow 
to take fullest advantage of the delightful state of peace 
which that intimacy brought about. 

Without doubt Miss Georgie ruled the roost at the 
Priory! It was odd that it should be so; nevertheless, it 
was perfectly true. She took no part in the management 
of the household, except to find fault; she never made her- 
self useful with needle and thread, as the others did, ex- 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


65 


cept at rare intervals and for the adornment of her own 
little person; she never considered the feelings or the com- 
fort of any human being but herself, except she wanted 
to coax some unusually large favor or service out of that 
person, when Circe herself could not have been more 
seductive than Georgie Darrell; and yet, undoubtedly, she 
wae invariably thought of first in every plan of arrange- 
ment that was made, and considered far more than any one 
else in the family. 

It was not that they believed in her, tffilt they thought 
her clever or even intelligent. No; it was simply and 
solely because Georgie had the power — the power, nay, in 
her case, it amounted to a gift — of making herself so in- 
tolerably disagreeable that, for the sake of peace alone, her 
mother and sisters had dropped into the habit of endeavor- 
ing never to put her out of conceit with herself or her sur- 
roundings. 

Or stay — 1 am going rather too far in saying that, for 
Madge had a wholesome way of letting Miss Georgie have 
the plain and unvarnished trufli now and again, which 
was as unpalatable to her and as good for her as the stern 
and unbending Virginie’s celebrated tisanes. 

So, for several days, all went as merrily as possible! 
Georgie was all smiles and little coquetries, and the re- 
doubtable Joey was in and out of the Priory like the pro- 
verbial dog in a fair.^^ But this blissful state of things 
did not tend to make Georgie any more lenient than usual 
to the desires and amusements of others. 

“ I canH tliinh ^^hy that Mr. Lesley is always here,^^ she 
remarked one day, when that gentleman appeared at the 

3 


66 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


gate. “ Really, he is never off the doorstep. The man 
is getting a regular nuisance. 

“Oh, heTl serve as a pendant to Joey,^^ observed 
Madge, with a caustic laugh. “ I’m sure Joey practically 
lives with us, and it’s just as well that he should not be 
the only man about the place. We might quarrel about 
him if he were.” 

“Joey doesn’t come to see said Georgie, with 

dignity. 

“ Heaven forbid!” Madge ejaculated, piously; “Re’d 
have a short shrift, as far as this house is concerned, if he 
did.” 

“ When any men do come to see you, Madge, my dear,” 
said Georgie, with a very elder-sister sort of air, “ it will 
be time enough then for you to say anything about the 
shortness or the longness of their shrift. But until then I 
would really advise you to leave those little caustic speeches 
unsaid — they sound so jealous. ” 

“ I’m not jealous of Mr. Lesley coming to see you, 
Georgie,” said the younger girl, smiling down from her 
superior height. 

“ You’ve no need to be — I like Joey Lancaster much 
the best of the two,” said Georgie, with superb disdain. 

“ That is a very good thing,” retorted Madge, with the 
utmost gravity. “ It makes it so pleasant and easy all 
around for us, doesn’t it? And you know what Sannazaro 
says on that subject, don’t you?” 

“ Ho, I don’t,” returned Georgie, sharply, as she put 
the finishing touches to the feathery masses of her hair. 

“ ‘ He among mortals,’ ” Madge quoted, “ ‘ may with 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


67 


most truth be called happy, who, without envying the 
grandeur of others, with a-modest mind is contented with 
his own fortune. ^ 

Georgie was, for the moment, silenced. She understood 
the, drift of the quotation, but quotations were not in her 
line, and had the effect of confusing her for the time. 
Still, she saw plainly enough the drift of Madge^s remarks; 
but, instead of setting her wits to answer her sharp- 
tongued young sister in her own language, she made a 
sudden resolve (Joey Lancaster and the danger of Flora 
West^s attractions notwithstanding), a resolve which in- 
volved the subjugation of Lesley and the painful process — 
necessity, Georgie would have called it, had she put the 
idea into words — of letting Madge see, once and for all, 
that she could not thus flaunt her swaggering White Dra- 
goon in the face of a little beauty like herself because she 
chose to select her chief favorite from among the sub- 
alterns of the Chalkshire Eegiment. 

And with head and heart filled with this laudable inten- 
tion, Miss Georgie went gayly down-stairs into the room 
where Mr. Lesley was placidly chattering with Mrs. Dar- 
rell in all ignorance of the little plot to make him alter his 
entire plan of action for the future. 

Now it must be remembered that a suspicion had crept 
into his mind, born of Miss Georgie ’s contradictory re- 
marks about his friend Hills of the Eoyal Horse, that 
“the little feather- topped beauty (as he dubbed her) 
had been in some way the cause of the evident misunder- 
standing between Hills and Violet Darrell. Of course, as 
yet, he did not actually Icnoio that Violet was the girl over 


68 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


whom Hills had come, in year’s gone by, such a cropper as 
to have won for himself not only in his regiment, but al- 
most throughout the entire seiwice, the character of being 
the most cynical woman-hater who ever lived; but he sus- 
pected that it was so from the sudden blanching of Violet^s 
beautiful face at the mention of his friend^s name, and 
from the unmistakable agony which had flooded into her 
lovely eyes ere she turned away from the piano. 

“Oh! is that you, Mr. Lesley?^’ was Georgie^s airy 
greeting; “ mammie dear, luhat a poor fire you keep! 1 
assure you, Mr. Lesley, 1 am the regular stoker of this es- 
tablishment, only I don^t get any wages and scarcely any 
thanks for keeping the fires in good order. They say l^m 
extravagant — I say tliey^re lazy/^ 

“ Let me do that,^^ said Lesley, politely, as Georgie 
opened the lid of the coal-box. 

Georgie gave up the task to him with charming com- 
plaisance, and Mrs. Darrell looked on in mingled amuse- 
ment and wonder at her little daughter’s audacity; for, as 
a general rule, Georgie’s way of filling the office of stoker 
to the household consisted of intimating to somebody else 
— that is to say, anybody who happened to be handy — that 
the fire wanted mending. 

“Ah! that’s quite lovely,” Georgie cried, clapping her 
little dimpled hands together, as she watched the replen- 
ishing process from a low and easy chair close to the 
hearth-rug. “Oh! more — more, Mr. Lesley; you don’t 
half know how to make a fire.” 

“ Georgie — Georgie, the room will be like an oven!” 
cried poor Mrs. Darrell, in dismay. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


69 


“ Yes, I know, mammie dear; that^s what you ways 
say,^^ G^orgie returned, airily. 

Lesley, however, stayed his hand, and after making up 
what he believed would be- a very cozy and comfortable 
fire, shut down the lid of the coal-box and went back to 
his chair again. 

“ Where are your sisters?^^ asked Mrs. Darrell, after a 
moment’s silence. 

“ I really don’t know where Violet is,” Georgie an- 
swered; ‘‘ Madge is scribbling away for dear life at her 
everlasting story-telling.” 

“ Does she know that Mr. Lesley is here?” inquired the 
mother, mildly. 

“ Oh, yes, dear,” answered Georgie; “ 1 saw him open 
the gate and told her who it was. ” 

Now Lesley, being sharp enough to couple this admis- 
sion with the little beauty’s well-acted surprise at finding 
him in the drawing-room when she entered it, and con- 
necting these facts also with his suspicions about Violet 
and his friend Hills, heard Georgie’s words with a more 
than doubtful ear and looked upon her coquettish little 
countenance with a more than doubtful eye; in fact, he 
said within himself: “Little devil, your game, is 
it?” and thus Miss Georgie’s little walk roimd about the 
truth was taken to no purpose. 

In less than five minutes he was rewarded by the en- 
trance of his divinity into the room. She came in quite 
quietly, but with th6 air of one who knew whom she would 
meet, and as Lesley held her fine, well-shaped hand in his 
and looked into the clear depths of her lovely honest eyes, 


70 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


he fairly blessed himself that he had not been blinded by 
the gold-dust of coquetry with which little Georgie had 
tried to hoodwink him as she had hoodwinked his friend 
Hills. 

“ I scarcely thought I should find you in to-day/^ he 
said. “ Most of our officers have gone up to the Wests’; 
but I wanted to see you, so I looked in on the chance as I 
did not know if you were going to the Wests’ or not. ” 

“ Have they got a party on?” Georgie demanded, 
wrathfully. 

“ Yes; most of our officers have gone on there,” Lesley 
answered, ‘‘ I thought if 1 found that you had gone, I 
could follow you. ” 

“We were not asked,” cried Georgie, indignantly. 

“ The Wests can not ask e«;er?/body,” put in Madge, 
with an amused laugh. “ They have such tiny rooms.” 

“ They can always find room to ask all the men,” 
Georgie flashed out, at which her three hearers laughed so 
merrily that even Georgie, in spite of her indignation, was 
obliged to laugh too. 

After that she grew restless, too restless to make any 
very great endeavor to captivate Lesley; she wandered 
about the room in an aimless kind of way, and stared out 
of the window into the gray dark of the winter afternoon, 
unmistakably watching and waiting. And then when Vir- 
ginie brought in the tea, and 'going to the window would 
have drawn down the blinds and put in the shutters, she 
stopped her with a piteous but would-be careless “ Oh, 
donH put the shutters in, Virginie; Fll do it by and by.” 

I am afraid that there was enough malice in Lesley’s 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


71 


nature for him to enjoy the little comedy thoroughly. He 
happened to know that Joey Lancaster, got up in irre- 
proachable style, with a flower in his button -hole and a 
cigarette between his lips, had gone up the village, appar- 
ently bound for Mrs. West’s hospitable domicile, but a 
minute or two before he himself had come up the road. 
It was likely enough that he had gone in the full expecta- 
tion of meeting Georgie theie, for, thoroughly as he de- 
spised the little beauty from a moral standpoint, Lesley did 
not pretend for a single moment that m attractiveness she 
was not infinitely superior to Flora West; but all the same 
it was a great joke to see her disgust and chagrin at his 
non-appearance. 

Still he did not come, and Georgie was at last reluctantly 
obliged to leave the window, and come nearer to the tea- 
table, when Lesley took the opportunity of administering 
a pin-prick which he had been saving for her benefit ever 
since he entered the house. 

“ 1 am going up to town to-morrow; I’ve got a few 
days’ leave,” he announced, keeping a careful eye on 
Georgie. ‘‘ I’m going to meet Hills — you remember 
him. Miss Georgie — Hills, of the Eoyal Horse. And I 
mean to get to the bottom of his persistent refusal to come 
to Idleminster. ” 

Georgie’s face was a study! 


72 


Jl little fool. 


CHAPTER X. 

CYNICAL HILLS, OF THE KOYAL HOKSE. 

“ Believe me, every man has his secret sorrows, which the world 
knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only 
sad.” 

Hyperion. 

“ I SHALL be back in a few days/^ Lesley said to Madge 
Darrell at parting, “ and shall come to see you at once. 
You are quite sure that there is nothing in town that I 
can do for you?’’ 

“ Oh, nothing, thanks!” Madge answered, gratefully. 

In truth, to her “ town ” did not convey any more real 
idea of a place where anything could be done for her, 
more than if Lesley had told her he was just off to Hong 
Kong and would carry out any commission that she wished 
him to do there. She had only passed through it once, 
and that in the early morning, on her way from Liverpool 
Street to King’s Cross, and the little she had seen of it 
then had not given her any desire to see it again, or to 
hanker after bonbons from Buszaid’s or perfumes from 
Rimmel’s. “ I hope you will have a very good time,” she 
said, in her sweet friendly tones. 

“ I shall be glad to come back again,” he said, signifi- 
cantly, “ though, of course, one does get a very good time 
in London, especially just now, when there is a lot going 
on. But I am going entirely on old Hills’s account, there 
is a little mystery in Hills’s past which I believe I can 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


73 


clear up. 1 believe I have found the clew to what has 
puzzled me for several years. 

He looked straight at Georgie as he spoke and saw — 
well, just what he expected to see — the unmistakable signs 
of guilt. But Madge was, of course, quite in the dark, 
and though she wondered a little at his words, had no 
thought whatever of connecting them with either of her 
sisters. Therefore she bade him “ good-bye, and in an- 
other moment he was gone. 

How 1 do dislike that man, to be sure,^^ snapped 
Georgie as the door closed behind him. 

“ Why should you dislike him?^^ Madge asked, with 
open wonder. 

“ Well, because I do. He’s so disagreeable and so 
supeiior.” 

“ He didn’t go to the Wests’, any way,” said Madge, 
quietly, and some other people did.” 

“Oh! Joey only went to see if 1 was there — if he went 
at all,” Georgie asserted, with superb disdain. 

“ And stayed to see whether you were going late,” said 
Madge, teasingly. 

“ I dare say your grand Mr. Lesley has gone there 
now,” Georgie cried. “ It’s not six yet.” 

“ But I saw him turn the other way and go toward the 
barracks— and so did you, my dear,” returned Madge, 
laughing. “ But there, there, neither of them are worth 
bickering about. Sit down in front of the fire and get 
yourself well toasted. Perhaps the valiant Joey will turn 
up yet, and then you’ll be happy.” 

“ How you girls do plague one another,” cried Mrs. 


74 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


Darrell. “ And some day when your real troubles come, 
youMl look back to the days at Ambleditch and make your- 
selves believe they were all sunshine.-’^ 

“Yes, dear, I dare say we shall, laughed Madge. 

“ And when we Ye all married to respectable middle-aged 
husbands in comfortable circumstances (such as Georgie is 
always looking forward to) and I have a Georgie of my 
own, 1 shall tell her when she is extra frivolous and full of 
fancies that I don’t know who she takes after, certainly 
not her aunt Georgie who was the sunshine of our lives 
when we were all girls together. ” - 

“ I’m not going to marry a middle-aged husband,” 
cried poor Georgie. 

“Even Joey would get middle-aged in time, dear,”^ 
Madge reminded her gently, “ though to be sure I don’t 
think he will ever have the other qualifications, poor boy. 
Listen! was not that the gate? Perhaps it is Joey’s own 
self; I’m sure I hope so, for you will be happy then.” 

It was Joey, the valiant, the redoubtable, who came in 
very full of grievances at having been what he called “ let 
in ” for the party at the Wests’. 

“ Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t going?” Madge 
heard him grumbling in an under-tone under cover of her 
music. “ I said to you yesterday, ‘ I shall see you to- 
morrow,’ and you said yes, and of course I went straight 
up to the Wests’ and — ” and then his voice dropped lower 
and lower until Madge could hear no more. Not that she 
was particularly anxious to do so. She had her own 
thoughts, her own dreams, her own happiness to occupy 
her mind; and her opinion of Joey was so small that she 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


75 


had scarcely the patience to remain in the room to see how*^ 
Georgie bloomed out like a flower in sunshine because he 
had come. 

But, all the same, Georgie was not happy. If the truth 
be told, she had perhaps never been so utterly miserable 
in her life as she was during the few days which followed. 
True, in Joey^s presence, she was, in a measure, able to 
throw off a horrible fear which stood knocking at the door 
of her heart, a horrible fear which had been standing there 
for years waiting for a chance of making itself heard — a 
horrible fear whose name was “ Found out.^^ • 

And as, owing to his duties and the ordinary usages of 
society, Joey could not take up a permanent residence at 
the Prioi-y, there were many hours of the day, and all the 
long and weary hours of the night, when she had to stand 
and face that grim specter and curse the very day when 
she had been foolish enough to give it standing-room, and 
speculate on the very slender charTce of its existence pass- 
ing unnoticed by those whom she would fain keep in 
ignorance of it. A vain hope, a very vain hope. For, 
blind herself as she would, she could not shut out from 
her moral vision the stern fact that Lesley knew, and that 
Lesley did not mean to keep his knowledge to himself. 

How she hated Lesley ! Doubtless, he had already be- 
trayed her to Hills, and they were laying their heads to- 
gether how they might best humiliate and discomfit her. 

But, in actual fact, it was not so. For Hills had not 
been able to get his leave for town until Lesley had been 
three days enjoying the delights of the center of civiliza- 
tion. But, certainly, when they met, Lesley lost no time 


76 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


in satisfying his curiosity — at least, that is the way one 
would put it if one was speaking of a woman! As he be- 
longed to that stern sex which knows not the meaning of 
the word “ curiosity/^ except as a very unpleasant femi- 
nine attribute, it will be best to say that die lost no time in 
trying to set his best friend^s very crooked love affairs 
straight, and in trying to turn his long-soured milk of 
human kindness back to its original sweetness. 

Lesley had put up at his usual hotel, and there Hills 
had joined him; they dined together, looked in at a the- 
ater, andilid a couple of evening crushes afterward. And 
toward two in the morning they found themselves the sole 
occupants of the hotel smoking-rOom, with a good fire and 
each man a whisky and seltzer at his elbow. So then, 
having waited patiently for several hours, Lesley waited no 
longer than to see his friend ^s pipe set fairly a-going. 

‘‘ Old chap,^' he began, “ weVe been friends for a good 
while, you and 

“ Ever since we first saw one another, returned Hills, 
with what, for him, was a burst of heartiness. 

Well, old chap,^^ said Lesley, not looking at Hills at 
all, but staring fixedly into the fire, I believe it’s just on 
the cards I may be able to do you a devilish good turn, 
and it sha’n’t be my fault if I don’t do it.” 

‘^Ah!” murmured Hills, in a questioning tone. 
‘‘Yes?” 

“ I may say anything 1 like without offense?” ' 

“ Of course,” said Hills, wondering what in the wide 
world the fellow was driving at. 

“ Well, you know,” Lesley went on, sighing a little. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


77 


“ you used to be the jolliest old cock in the Royal Horse, 
or out of it for that matter. 

“ Did put in Hills, doubtfully. 

“ Yes, you did, old chap — and then, all at once, you 
changed — altered — went to pot as far as your old self was 
concerned. 

“ Men do alter, Hills admitted, finding that Lesley 
waited for him to say something, and not feeling at that 
moment at all in the mood for saying it. 

Yes, 1 dare say men do alter, when theyVe got some- 
thing to alter for, not else,^^ Lesley persisted. “ You 
altered just about the time the Royal Horse went to India, 
and I — I want to do you a service, old chap, so if I blun- 
der over it a bit, you won^t think anything of it, will you? 
but I want you to tell me if Violet Darrell — but there 
Hills gave a great start and Lesley stopped short. “ I — 
1 — didn^t mean to ofiend you, old fellow,^’ he ended, 
apologetically. 

“ I didn^t say you had offended me,^^ said Hills, in a 
choked sort of voice; and then there was a long silence be- 
tween them, during which Hills pulled hard and fast at 
his pipe and Lesley let his go out. 

It was very uncomfortable; and poor Lesley turned and 
twisted in his chair, wondering how he should manage to 
break the ice and get on with what he had to say. At 
last, in sheer desperation, he blundered on: 

‘‘ The fact is,- old chap, since we^ve been in Idleminster, 
IVe been pretty intimate with the Darrells, in fact, I\e 
seen a good deal of them, and — 

“Look here,^^ Hills interrupted, sternly, “you mean 


78 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


well, Lesley, old chap — yon and Driver Dallas are the two 
best friends 1 ever had in my life; I know you mean well. 
But let that subject he; I can^t stand it. 1^11 tell you now 
what you want to know, but let it be once for all. It was 
Violet Darrell I loved — God help me, poor, unsuspicious 
beggar that I was! I thought she cared for me; perhaps 
she did, any way she led me on when she was engaged to 
another man, and whether it was him or me she cared for 
I didn’^t wait to find out. I had found her out for the 
d — dest jilt that ever lived, and I washed my hands of her 
for good'and all. You’re right; it does sour a fellow 
W'hen a thing like that happens to him; it soured me— 
sour I am, and sour 1 shall be to the end of the chapter. ” 

“ One question, and I have done,” said Lesley. “ Who 
told you she was engaged to another man?” 

“ Her own sister,” cried Hills; “ so there!” 

“ I knew it!” cried Lesley, almost with a shout of 
triumph, ‘'I knew it! Hills, old boy, shake hands with 
me, for I’ve circumvented that scheming little devil at 
last. Listen to me : Violet Darrell was never engaged to 
any one in her life, never; it was a deliberate lie of that 
Georgie’s to get you for herself. And Violet is free — 
cares for you yet, old chap — has never cared for another 
fellow at all!” 

“ Lesley,” cried Hills, his lips beginning to tremble and 
his face to whiten in spite of himself. 

“ It’s true,” Lesley cried; “ 1 tell you she turned as 
white as death when 1 mentioned your name, and 1 never 
rested till 1 felt as sure as I could be that Georgie was at 
the bottom of it. It’s all true, as true as gospel; for I 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


79 


tell you I^m utterly gone on the other sister, Madge, the 
one you’ve never seen — and Madame Georgie tried the 
same game on me ! That was how 1 found her out.’^ 


CHAPTER XL 

FOUND OUT. 

“Believe me, upon the margin of celestial streams alon^ those 
simples grow which cure the heartache.” 

Hyperion. 

He who devises evil for another, falls at last into his own pit, and 
the most cunning finds himself caught by what he had prepared for 
another. 

Metastasio. 

Foe full two minutes Hills sat staring at Lesley as if he 
could not believe his own ears. 

“ Are you quite sure of what you’re saying?” he asked, 
at last, in incredulous tones. 

“lam perfectly sure,” Lesley answered, steadily. 

“ And she has never been engaged to any one?” 

“ Never!” Lesley asserted, positively. 

“But — but why on earth should her own sister — ” 
Hills began, when his friend cut him short. 

“ Look here, old chap,” he said, brusquely, “ it’s just 
this way. Georgie Darrell is an arrant little coquette — a 
flirt — an unscrupulous, mischief-making liar, as wicked as 
she is high— that’s in plain English the long and the short 
of the whole business. She spends all her time laying 
herself out to please any young tadpoles in the shape of 
militia subs that may be going in Idleminster sassiety; 


80 


A LITTLE - FOOL. 


and then when either of her sisters attracts an older or 
more eligible man, she^s that infernally jealous she can^t 
rest till she has got hold of them — or had a try to, which 
is the same thing as far as she is concerned. Why, the 
very day before I came up to town, I went up to the 
Priory in the afternoon, and was chatting with Mrs. 
Darrell, when in she came. ‘Oh! is that you, Mr. Les- 
ley?’ says she, with as much astonishment in her false 
little voice and on her false little face as if I’d been out in 
India for ten years and hadn’t served half my time. And 
then after a bit she forgot all that, and pretended Madge 
was busy writing and wasn’t coming down at all. Mrs. 
Darrell asked if Madge knew I was there. ‘ Oh, yes,’ she 
answered, airily, ‘ for I was at the window and saw him 
open the gate. I told Madge who it was!’ Why, when 
first 1 spoke about you to the Darrells at all, she bridled 
up as if you’d been her special property. ‘ You remember 
him, Vi, donH you?’ she said. ‘Oh! he was a great 
friend of ours — such a nice fellow.’ ” 

Hills suddenly got up from his chair and knocked his 
pipe out against the edge of the chimney-shelf. “ I’m 
going to bed, old fellow,” he said, abruptly — “ don’t think 
me ungrateful — you’ve done me a devilish good turn, and 
I shall never forget it. But I can’t talk about it just yet, 
and I want to get away and think it over quietly by my- 
self.” 

“ And you’ll come back to Idleminster with me?” said 
Lesley, anxiously. 

“ I shall go down to-morrow,” answered the other, 
promptly. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


81 


‘‘ Then I shall go back with you,’’ said Lesley, cheer- 
fully. 

‘‘ Oh, no need for that; your leave is not up yet,” pro- 
tested Hills. 

‘‘Leave!” repeated Lesley, with a huge contempt such 
as ought to have cut off all his leave for a twelvemonth to 
come. “Oh! leave be bio wed! Why, my dear chap, 1 
wouldn’t miss Madame Georgie’s face when she first sets 
eyes on you for all the leave I could squeeze out of my 
next ten years’ service,” and then at last the awed gravity 
on Hills’s face relaxed, and they both went off into fits of 
laughter. 

So, surely enough, the following morning found the two 
men on the platform at King’s Cross, looking put their 
places for the North express; and, not unnaturally, a few 
hours later — that is to say, between five and six of the 
afternoon — when Virginie had carried the tea-tray into the 
-Priory drawing-room, she was summoned to the door by a 
vigorous pull at the bell which sent a loud peal resounding 
through the house. And on going to see who had made 
such a commotion she found Lesley and another gentle- 
man waiting for admittance. 

“ Virginie,” said Lesley, slipping something into her 
hand — “ who is at home?” 

“ The young ladies, sir,” Virginie answered, with a 
smile. 

“Not madame?” 

“ Madame is making visits in the village,” the French 
woman answered. “ I expect her at any moment. ” 

“ Virginie, show this gentleman into the dining-room. 


82 


A LITTLE POOL. 


Yes, I see you remember him, and after a minute or so 
fetch Miss Darrell — Miss Violet, you know — out on some 
excuse or other, and send her in there. He wants to 
speak to her at once — you understand 

“ Perfectly, monsieur,^ ^ returned Virginie, with a com- 
prehensive glance at Hills, whom she did not recognize so 
thoroughly as Lesley imagined. 

“ Go along, old chap,^"' said Lesley. “ Now, perhaps 
you^ll show me in, Virginie. 

So Virginie opened the drawing-room door and an- 
nounced ‘‘ Mis-tarre Les-lee in her usual manner; and, 
as Lesley expected, the three girls were there, and also the 
redoubtable Joey. 

He could not be blind to the nervous start which 
Georgie gave on seeing him; but the presence of the val- 
iant Joey gave her a good deal more courage than she 
would otherwise have had, and she, by an effort, rose to 
the occasion airily enough; indeed, she was the first to 
jump off her seat and greet the new-comer. 

‘‘We could not imagine who it was, she exclaimed. 
“ There seemed to be quite a consultation going on out- 
side the door. 

“ I was inquiring after the excellent Virginie’s health, 
said Lesley, imperturbably. “ Virginie and 1 are great 
friends, and I have not seen her for several days.-’^ 

“ Virginie ought to be flattered, cried Georgie, with a 
ringing laugh, which somehow sounded a little forced and 
false in Lesley’s expectant ears. 

“ Did you have a good time in London?” she inquired, 
when he had greeted her sisters and nodded to Joey, 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


83 


‘‘ The best I ever remember/^ said Lester, promptly. 

- Georgie gave a sigh, “ IJoio nice I How 1 wish tve could 
go up to London for a few days and have a good time. 

“ Mademoiselle,^^ said Virginie, appearing at the door 
at that moment, pardon, but could I speak to you for 
one moment?’^ 

“ Certainly, Virginie, said Violet, rising at once, then 
glanced at the two men. “ You will excuse me?^^ 

“ Dear me — more mysterious communications,’^ re- 
marked Georgie, flippantly, and wondered what the smile 
which flickered for an instant under Lesley’s mustache 
could possibly mean. 

However, she did not desert the drawing-room and the 
two men to satisfy her curiosity on the subject of what she 
called Virginie’s “ mysterious communication ” to Violet. 
On the contrary, she stayed and did her very best by her 
manner to Joey Lancaster to show Lesley how very little 
she desired to attract him. And the valiant Joey — not 
unmindful of the White Dragoon’s occasional look of dis- 
gusted disdain — sunned himself in the light of the little 
beauty’s smiles with quite an idea that he was having a 
favored time at the expense of the other man; in short 
that Lesley was furiously jealous of him! 

Meantime, Violet had followed Virginie out into the 
hall. “ What is it, Virginie?” she asked, expecting that 
it was some tiresome tradesman who had sent in a tire- 
some bill “ to wait for an answer.” 

“There is some one for you in the dining-room, 
mad’moiselle,” answered Virginie, then pushed hei’ gently 
into the room and softly closed the door behind her. 


84 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


Still unsuspicious of the truth, Violet walked into the 
middle of the room, and — and then Hills turned round 
from the hearth-rug where he had been standing, and 
faced her? 

“Violet,’^ he said, humbly, “ don^t you know me? 
Have you forgotten me?^^ 

“Mr. Hills she exclaimed, turning very white, and 
making an involuntary movement of her hands toward 
him— a movement that was not lost on Hills any more 
than the fact that they were trembling violently. 

He went a step or two toward her and caught her hands 
in his. “ I have no right to come back,^^ he said, very 
meekly, “ but I went away like a fool for the sake of a lie; 
I have no right ever to expect you to look at me again, 
ever to speak to me again, for 1 went away in anger with 
you, believing a lie against you that I ought to have 
known, knowing you, was a lie. But if I sinned against 
you, my darlings he went on, holding her hand close 
against his breast — “ I have suffered during these years. 
Oh! my God, what have I not sneered, for my life has 
been one hell of regret, of misery, of yearning and hun- 
gering for you; and now 1 have come back, not what I 
was — I wonH pretend it — but soured and hardened, and, 
in a measure, a broken man altogether, to ask your for- 
giveness for the doubt I have had of you, to ask your in- 
finite pity, to beg that you won^t send me away — and 
then, all at once. Hills — cynical Hills, the sneering, gibing 
hater of women — (if only the Boyal Horse or Driver Dallas 
could have seen him!) — set the little hands free and took 
Violet Darrell into his arms, and the next moment she was 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


85 


sobbing her heart out upon his breast. It was all right 
then, and in those few moments, brief, precious, fleeting 
as they were. Hills had got rid of the lion’s share of his 
cynicism and his hardness and was a long way back upon 
the road to being the Hills whom Violet Darrell had 
learned to love before ever the Eoyal Horse went ofl to the 
shining East. 

“ And you have loved me all along?” he said, half be- 
wildered, when a little time had gone by. 

“ All along,” sighed she, with ineffable contentment in 
her looks and tones. 

“ And are you not even going to ask me what the lie 
was that parted us?” he asked, holding her closer still. 

But Violet shook her head. “ 1 thought of nothing, 
only that you had come back,” she said, simply. 

‘‘Oh, God! To think I doubted you,” he cried, in 
keenest self-reproach. “My darling, in your angelic 
goodness you have taken me back; but I am not fit for 
you — I am not fit to lie down under your feet and let you 
trample on me. I — ” 

“ What was it that you heard?” she asked. 

He hesitated for an instant. “ I heard that all the time 
I had been trying to win you, you were engaged to an- 
other man. ” 

“But what nonsense; how could that be? You might 
have known, you ought to have known that it was not 
true,” she cried. “ It was so absurd that I can’t under- 
stand your being deceived by it, or believing it for a mo- 
ment. And who told you this wonderful story?” 

“ Must I tell you?” 


86 


A LITTLE POOL. 


“ Yes/^ she said, firmly, “ you must tell me.^’ 

“ It was your sister,’^ he said, quietly. 

“ My sister? What — Georgie?’^ 

“ Your sister Georgie,^' he answered. 

For a moment she was silent. “ I don’t see how you 
can be blamed for believing it,” she said at last. You 
are sure you made no mistake? She said it in plain En- 
glish?’^ 

“ In plain English,” he said, in a tone which admitted 
of no doubt. 

Violet drew a deep breath. She is my sister,” she 
said, slowly, at last. “ And if my mother comes to hear 
of it, it will kill her. Will you be content to keep silence 
if I ask you — for my mother’s sake?” 

‘‘ Oh, my darling!” he began, passionately, and just 
then the door opened and Georgie burst in, stopping short 
as she caught sight of Hills. 

“ Georgie,” said Violet, sternly, catching her by the 
arm, what have you to say for yourself?” 

“Mr. Hills,” Georgie gasped — “Mr. Hills — I — I — ” 
and then she reeled aside and fell to the floor like a log of 
wood. 


A LITTLE TOOL. 


87 


CHAPTER XIL 

THE LITTLE FOOL ! 

“ Wliitlier my heart h^ gone, there follows my hand, and not else- 
where. 

For when the heart goes before, like a lamp, and illumines the 
pathway, 

% Many things are made clear, that else lie hidden in darkness,” 

Evangdine. 

It was a long time before Georgie came to her own 
senses again; when she did she sat up and, resting her 
head against Virginie, who had been hurriedly called on 
' the scene by Violet, looked languidly round the room. 
And by that time she was herself again. 

“Is it really yoi(, Mr. Hills?^^ she said, in a tone of 
languid astonishment. “ Do you know, for a minute I 
thought it was your ghost or something! Hoio you startled 
mel’^ 

“You had better go up to your room and lie down,^^ 
said Violet, coldly. “ There was not the least need for 
you to make such an exhibition of yourself as to faint and 
all that If mother finds you like this she will be fright- 
ened to death. 

“ I nearly was/^ said Georgie, closing her eyes again 
and leaning heavily against Virginie. “ Really, I think— 
though, of coui-se, Mr. Hills, I'm enchanted to see you— 
it's very inconsiderate of people to come unawares upon 
one in that way. ' It's so startling.'^ 


88 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


“ Especially when one has not had time to get one^s de- 
fense ready/ ^ said Violet, with cold disdain. 

Georgie flushed up with a very pretty show of indigna- 
tion. “ Defense! What do you mean, Violet? What 
have I to defend myself against? 1 don^t understand you 
in the very least. Pray explain yourself. 

“ 1 will,^'’ answered Violet, her eyes gleaming danger- 
ously, and with a light which neither Georgie nor Hills 
had ever seen in their gentle depths before. You told 
Mr. Hills here some time ago — before the Eoyal Horse 
went to India, in fact — that I was engaged to some man — 
and that was why Mr. Hills never came to see me one 
afternoon when yoib Jcnew I ^as waiting for him — that was 
why he went to India without asking me to marry him. 
You have known this all along; and just now when you 
saw that he had come back and that you were found out, 
you were so frightened you fainted right away. Oh, yes, 
you fainted honestly enough. IVe seen you faint a good 
many times, and this time it was genuine; you might have 
come round a-little quicker, she ended in disgust — “ but 
that is a detail. 

Georgie sat up and pushed Virginie away from her, and 
started at her sister with surprise which was the very 
essence of superb acting. 

“ The mischief you have made— why, and with what 
possible reason you ever did it, I can not think, except that 
it was to gratify your inordinate vanity— is as much re- 
paired now as it can ever be,^^ Violet went on, sadly; 
“ and for our mother^s sake, not to spare you in any way, 
I will keep silence about it. She has had troubles enough; 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


89 


it is no use worrying her by telling what she knows in her 
heart already— that you are as false as you are high.^^ 

By this time Miss Georgie had collected her senses suflB- 
ciently to speak. And speak she did to some purpose. 

“ I was never , she said, in slow and deliberate accents, 
“ so insulted in the whole course of my life. You will 
j^eep silence for our mother^s sake! Indeed you need do 
nothing of the kind, for my mother shall hear these vile 
accusations which you have brought against me the very 
instant she enters the house! As for you,^^ turning like a 
fury upon Hills, who was well-nigh struck dumb by her 
audacity, “ how dare you say that I told you my sister was 
engaged to ariy one?^^ 

“ You did tell me so,^^ Hills said, promptly. 

Never I” Georgie cried, indignantly. “I could not 
tell you such a thing — it wouldn’t have been true.” 

I know now that it was not true,” said Hills, steadily; 
“ but at the time you told me, I believed you — to my 
cost. ” 

“ And you say you went to India believing that I had 
told you my sister was engaged?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And was that the reason you did not ask her to marry 
you then?” 

“ That was so.” 

Georgie burst into a shrill peal of laughter. 

“ Why, you must have been mad or dreaming,” she 
cried. I put it to you, why should I say anything so 
preposterous, so outrageous? You were a good match in 
every way for her; it would have been a good thing for us 


90 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


all that you should have married her. It — it — is so ab- 
surd, it’s such a foolish charge to bring against me, for 
you can not be" vain enough to think that 1 ever cared for 
you.” 

“ 1 did not think that,” Hills admitted. 

“ Then you must have dreamed it,” Georgie exclaimed^ 

“ I don’t think I dreamed it,” he said, not liking to 
take a“ harder stand against a woman , who was plainly 
driven into a corner and was making such' a determined 
and plucky fight to get out of it. 

Georgie saw her advantage and seized it in a moment. 
“ You donH think — Ah! then you are not quite sure! 
Well, I am; and that I never said or thought of saying 
any such thing. It’s not been very pleasant for me — all 
this — but I’m not malicious, and so, as Violet says, for 
our mother’s sake, I will say nothing more about it. But 
the next time, Violet, my dear,” she ended, airily, “you 
feel inclined to denounce any one, just wait till you’ve 
heard the other side of the story before you begin. It’s the 
wisest and the least unpleasant thing to do — take my word 
for it — ” and then she quietly slipped out of the room 
and left Violet and Hills together, Virginie having betaken 
herself discreetly away some little time before. 

For a minute or so the long-parted lovers stood staring 
at each other in blank amazement; then Hills burst out 
laughing at the cleverness and the utter absurdity of it all 
— a heartier laugh than had passed his lips since the day 
when the Koyal Horse marched out of Idleminster bound 
for the shining East. 

“ What am I to do?” Violet asked. 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


91 


“ Do?’^ he echoed. “ Why, you can^t do anything. 
We are routed, horse, foot, and dragoons. I never saw 
such superb dash in my life. Heavens, what a general 
she^d makeP’ 

“ Shall I have to sit down and pocket it all quietly?’" 
Violet exclaimed. 

“ Yes, and say ‘ Thank you," into the bargain,"" Hills 
rejoined. “ What else can you do? There is only my 
word against hers. 1" re no absolute proof one way or the 
other."" 

“ And we have always called Georgie a fool!"" cried Vio- 
let, with bewildered admiration. 

“ Then you were wrong — she is no fool,"" said he, de- 
cidedly; “ quite the contrary for that matter, for she"s 
simply as clever as daylight. "" 

But, all her cleverness notwithstanding. Miss Georgie 
did not get off quite so easily as she seemed, at one time, 
about to do; for that exceedingly plain-spoken and incon- 
venient young person, Madge, had something to say on the 
subject. And she chose to say it that very night, when 
Georgie was just brushing out her feathery golden hair in 

preparation for going to bed. 

“ I say, Georgie,"" she began, marching into the little 
beauty"s room followed by Violet, “ Violet"s been telling 
me something about you to-day, and I want to speak to 
you. "" 

‘‘ About me? Well, what is it?"" said Georgie, sharply, 
and brushing away at her hair as ii dear life depended on it. 

“ Yes; Violet has told me all about it,” said Madge, in 
a very matter-of-fact tone. 


92 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


“ I think Violet would have done better to have held 
her tongue/' returned Georgie, sharply, ‘‘ considering 
that I was more grossly insulted than I ever was in my life 
before." 

‘‘ Yes; but all the same you did tell Mr. Hills, you 
know," said Madge, coolly. 

“ Madge!" cried Georgie, warningly. 

‘‘ Yes; I know you're very good at that sort of thing," 
said Madge, quietly; “ injured innocence and outraged 
truth and all the rest; but you've been pretty miserable 
the last few days, Georgie, and you know it; in fact, you 
never were quite so wretched in all your life before; you 
haven't been able to settle to anything; you haven't eaten 
or taken any interest in life at all. You've scarcely slept; 
and when — you — did— sleep — you — had — dreams . ' ' 

“ Dreams!" Georgie cried. 

“Yes, dreams! Only last night I heard you moaning 
and crying in your sleep, and I came in to see if you were 
ill or anything. But no, you were asleep; you were 
dreaming — dreaming about Mr. Hills. ^s"ow, if what he 
told Violet to-day was a lie, what did you want to be 
dreaming about it for last night? Tell me that." 

“ What did I say?" Georgie faltered. 

“ Ah! we are getting at the truth now," Madge mur- 
mured to Violet. “ Well, you said just this — just in this 
way: ‘ Oh! no~no — Mr. Hills, don’t tell Violet. I never 
meant it really — 1 never did. She isn't engaged to any one; 
it was only a joke; and — and I shall die if you tel] her' — 
and then you went off into sobs and indistinct moans; and 
1 went back to bed enlightened not a little, I can assure you. " 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


93 


There was a long silence; but at last Violet broke it. 

Have you anything to say?^^ she asked, contemptuously. 

Georgie only shook her head, and the elder girl rose to 
her feet. “ You lied remarkably well this afternoon,^' 
she said, in cutting tones. “It is an accomplishment you 
possess to perfection; but you need not bring it into fam- 
ily use again. I am going to marry Captain Hills, and 
Madge is safely engaged to Mr. Lesley; so you had better 
keep all your art in that way for Joey Lancaster's benefit, 
and if you can prevent him from finding out what a false 
little Jezebel you are, it will serve you a good turn yet'/’ 
and then she took Madge^s hand and they went out, leav- 
ing the little beauty by herself with all her feathery golden 
hair hiding her face. 

How it happened that the following afternoon Mrs. Dar- 
rell was sitting by the fire in the Priory drawing-room 
alone. Violet and Madge were both out, probably with 
their respective swains, and only Georgie was at home. 

She came sidling up to her mother with her most 
coquettish and coaxing air, and sat herself down on the 
hearth-rug, resting her pretty golden head against her 
mother^s knee. 

“ Mammie darling, she began, “ would you do some- 
thing for me?^^ 

“ If I can,^^ said Mrs. Darrell, indulgently. 

“ Well, you know, dear, we have always said — we girls 
— that we must marry some money. 

“ It is desirable, Mrs. Darrell admitted. 

“ And Vi and Madge are both very lucky; they are 


94 


A LITTLE FOOL. 


going to marry money/^ Georgie went on; “ but, mam- 
mie darling, 1 want to marry all for love; and — and — he 
hasn't much money, poor Joey — " 

“ Not that Joey!" cried Mrs. Darrell, in dismay. 

“ Mammie dear, I do love him so," Georgie cried. 
‘‘And I'm not like the others; I couldn't count money 
and all that in comparison with love; you'U be kind to 
him, won't you, darling, when he comes to see you about 
it?" 

“ But what are you going to live on?" Mrs. Darrell 
cried. 

“ On the dinner of herbs where love is," said Georgie, 
with beautiful seriousness. “ Only say ‘ yes,' dear, and I 
shall never grudge my sisters their stalled oxen, though I 
have been credited aU my life with being a vain and selfish 
little fool. " 

“ And to think," said Mrs. DarreU afterward to 
Madge, ‘‘ that of you three, the one to give up all for love 
should be Georgie 


THE EHD. 


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AUTHORS’ CATALOGUE. 

[When ordering by mail please order by numbers.'] 


Works by the author of “ Addie’s 
Husband.” 

388 Addie’s Husband ; or, Through 


Clouds to Sunshine 10 

504 Mv Poor Wife 10 

1046 Jessie 20 

Works by the author ol ” A Fatal 
Dower.” 

246 A Fatal Dower 20 

372 Phyllis’ Probation 10 

461 His Wedded Wife 20 

829 The Actor’s Ward 20 

Works by the author of ” A Great 
Mistake.” 

244 A Great Mistake 20 

.588 Cherry 10 

■•040 Clarissa’s Ordeal. 1st half.. . 20 

1040 Clarissa’s Ordeal. 3d half... . 20 

.137 Prince Charming 20 


Woman’s Love-Story.” 

S22 A W'oman’s Love-Story 10 

677 Griselda 20 

Mrs. Alexander’s Works. 

6 The Admiral’s Ward. . 20 

17 The Wooing O’t 20 

62 The Executor 20 

189 Valerie’s Fate 10 

829 Maid, Wife, or Widow? 10 

836 Which Shall it Be? 20 


339 Mrs. Vereker’s Courier Maid.. 10 

490 A Second Life 20 

564 At Bay 10 

794 Beaton’s Bargain 20 

797 Look Before You Leap 20 

805 The Freres. 1st half 20 

805 The Freres. 2d half 20 

806 Her Dearest Foe. 1st half.... 20 

806 Her Dearest Foe. 2d half 20 

814 The Heritage of Langdale — 20 

815 Ralph Wilton’s Weird 10 

900 By Woman’s Wit 80 

997 Forging the Fetters, and The 

Australian Aunt 20 

1054 Mona’s Choice 20 

1057 A Life Interest 20 

Alison’s Works. 

194 “So Near, and Yet So Far!”.. 10 

278 For Life and Love 10 

481 The House That Jack Built... 10 

F. Aiistey’s Works. 

59 Vice VersA W 

225 The Giant’s Robe 30 

503 The Tinted Venus. A Farcical 

Romance 10 

819 A Fallen Idol 30 

R. M. Ballantyne’s Works. 

89 The Red Eric 10 

95 The Fire Brigade 10 

96 Erling the Bold 10 

772 Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood 

Trader 


2 


THE SEASroE LIBRARY— Pocket Edition. 




Honore De Balzac’s Works. 


776 PSreGoriot 20 

1128 Cousin Pons 20 

8. Barin^r-Gould’s Works. 

787 Court Royal 20 

878 Little Tu’penny 10 

1122 Eve 20 


Frank BaiTCtt’s Works. 

986 The Gi’eat Hesper 20 

1138 A Recoiling Vengeance 20 

Basil’s Works. 

344 “ The Wearing of the Green 20 

547 A Coquette’s Conquest 20 

685 A Drawn Game 20 

Anne Beale’s Works. 

188 Idonea 20 

199 The Fisher Village 10 

Walter Besant’s Works. 

97 All in a Garden Fair 20 

137 Uncle Jack 10 

140 A Glorious Fortune 10 

146 Love Finds the Way,and Other 
Stories. By Besant and Rice 10 

230 Dorothy Forster 20 

324 In Luck at Last 10 

641 Uncle Jack 10 

651 “ Self or Bearer” 10 

882 Children of Gibeon 20 

904 The Holy Rose 10 

906 The World Went Very Well 

Then 20 

980 To Call Her Mine 20 

1055 Katharine Regina ^ 

1065 Herr Paulus: His Rise, His 

Greatness, and His Fall 20 

1143 The Inner House 20 

1151 For Faith and Freedom. 20 


HI. Betham-£d wards’s Works. 


273 Love and Mirage; or, The Wait- 
ing on an Island 10 

579 The Flower of Doom, and Other 

Stories 10 

594 Doctor Jacob 20 

1023 Next of Kin— Wanted 20 

William Black’s Works. 

1 Yolande 20 

18 Shandon Bells ^ 

21 Sunrise : A Story of These 

Times 20 

28 A Princess of Thule 20 

39 In Silk Attire 20 

44 Macleod of Dare 20 

49 That Beautiful Wretch 20 

50 The Strange Adventures of a 

Phaeton 20 

70 White Wings; A Yachting Ro- 
mance 10 

78 Madcap Violet 20 

81 A Daughter of Heth ^ 

124 Three Feathers 20 

125 The Monarch of Mincing lAne ^ 

126 Kilmeny.c, ... 


138 Green Pastures and Piccadilly 20 
265 Judith Shakespeare : Her Love 
Affairs and Other Adventures 20 
472 The Wise Women of Inverness 10 

627 White Heather 20 

898 Romeo and Juliet: A Tale of 

Two Young Fools 

962 Sabina Zembra. 1st half. . — 

962 Sabina Zembra. 2d half 

1096 The Strange Adventures of a 

House-Boat 

1132 In Far Lochaber 

R. D. Blackmore’s Woi’ks. 

67 Lorna Doone. 1st half 

67 Lorna Doone. 2d half 

4^ The Remarkable History of Sir 
Thomas Upmore, Bart., M. P. 

615 Mary Anerley 

625 Erema; or. My Father’s Sin.. 

6^ Cripps, the Carrier 

630 Cradock Nowell. 1st half 

630 Cradock Nowell. 2d half 

631 Christo well. A Dartmoor Tale 

632 rlara Vaughan 

633 The Maid of Sker. 1st half... 

633 The Maid of Sker. 2d half. . . . 

636 Alice Lorraine. 1st half 

636 Alice Lorraine. 2d half. 

926 Springhaven. 1st half 

926 Springhaven. 2d half 

Miss M. E. Braddon’s Works. 

35 Lady Audley’s Secret 

66 Phantom Fortune 

74 Aurora Floyd 

110 Under the Red Flag 

153 The Golden Calf . 

204 Vixen 

211 The Octoroon 

234 Barbara ; or, Splendid Misery. 

263 An Ishmaelite 

315 The Mistletoe Bough. Christ- 
mas, 1884. Edited by Miss M. 

E. Braddon 

434 Wy Hard’s Weird 

478 Diavola; or. Nobody’s Daugh- 
ter. Part I 

478 Diavola; or. Nobody’s Daugh- 
ter. Part II 

480 Married in Haste. Edited by 
Miss M. E. Braddon 

487 Put to the Test. Edited by Miss 

M. E. Braddon 

488 .Toshua Haggard’s Daughter.. . 

489 Rupert Godwin 

495 Mount Royal . 

496 Only a Woman. Edited by Miss 

M. E. Braddon 

497 The Lady’s Mile 

498 Only a Glod 

499 The Cloven Foot 

511 A Strange World 

515 Sir Jaspei-’s Tenant ... 

524 Strangers and Pilgrims 

529 The Doctor’s Wife 

542 Fenton’s Quest. ... 

644 Cut by the Coun^; or, Grace ^ 




B B B BB BB^BB^BBB 888 ^ 88 ^ 88 ^ 88^8 88 88 888 


THE SEASIDE LIDHARY — Pocket Edition. 3 


648 The Fatal Marriage, and The 

Shadow in the Corner 10 

549 Dudley Carleon; or. The Broth- 
er’s Secret, and George Caul- 
field’s Journey 10 

55*2 Hostages to Fortune 20 

553 Birds of Prey 20 

554 Charlotte’s Inheritance. (Se- 

quel to “ Birds of Prey ”) 20 

567 To tiie Bitter End 20 

559 Taken at the Flood 20 

5(50 Asphodel 20 

561 Just as I am ; or, A Living Lie 20 

567 Dead Men’s Shoes 20 

570 John ]\Iarchmont's Legacy 20 

618 The Mistletoe Bough. Clirist- 
mas, 1885. Edited by Miss M. 

E. Braddon 20 

840 One Thing Needful; or. The 

Penalty of Fate 20 

881 lilohawks. 1st half 20 

881 lilohawks. 2d half 20 

890 The Mistletoe Bough. Christ- 
mas, 1886. Editeti by Miss M. 

E. Braddon 20 


943 Weavers and Weft; or, “ Love 

that Hath Us in His Net ” 20 

947 Publicans and Sinners; or, 

Lucius Davoren. 1st half 20 

947 Publicans and Sinners; or, 
Lucius Davoren. 2d half.... 20 

1036 Like and Unlike 20 

1098 The Fatal Three ^ 

Works by Charlotte HI. Braeme, 
Author of “Dora Thorne.” 

19 Her Mother’s Sin 10 

51 Dora Thorne 20 

54 A Broken Wedding-Ring 20 

68 A Queen Amongst Women 10 

69 Madolin’s Lover 20 

73 Redeemed by Love; or. Love’s 

Victory 20 

76 Wife in Name Only; or, A 

Broken Heart 20 

79 Wedded and Parted 10 

92 Lord Lynne’<? Choice 10 

148 Thorns and Orange-Blossoms. 10 

190 Romance of a Black Veil 10 

220 Which Loved Him Best? 10 

287 Repented at Leisure. (Large 

type edition) 20 

967 Repented at Leisure 10 

^9 “ Prince Charlie’s Daughter;” 

or. The Cost of Her Love. . . . 10 
250 Sunshine and Roses; or, Di- 
ana’s Discipline 10 

254 The Wife’s Secret, and Fair 

but False 10 

283 The Sin of a Lifetime ; or, Viv- 
ien’s Atonement 10 

287 At War With Herself 10 

9^ At War With Herself. (Large 

type edition) 20 

288 From Gloom to Sunlight; or. 

From Out the Gloom 10 

955 From Gloom to Sunlight; or. 
From Out the Gloom. (Large 
type edition) 20 , 


291 Love’s Warfare 10 

292 A Golden Heart 10 

293 The Shadow of a Sin 10 


948 The Shadow of a Sin. (Large 

type edition) 

294 Lady Hutton’s Ward 

294 Hilda: or. The False Vow 

928 Lady Hutton's Ward 

928 H i 1 d a ; or, The False Vow. 

(Large type edition) 

295 A Woman’s War 

952 A Woman’s War. (Large type 

edition) 

296 A Rose in Thorns 

297 Hilary’s Folly; cr. Her Mar- 

riage Vow 

953 Hilary’s Folly; or, Her Mar- 

riage Vow. (Large type edi- 
tion) 

299 The Fatal Lilies, and A Bride 

from the Sea 

300 A Gilded Sin, and A Bridge of 

Love 

303 IngledewHouse, and More Bit- 

ter than Death 

304 In Cupid’s Net 

305 A Dead Heart, and Lady Gwen- 

doline’s Dream 

306 A Golden Dawn, and Love for 

a Day 

307 Two Kisses, and Like no Other 

Love 

308 Beyond Pardon 

322 A Woman’s Love-Story 

323 A Willful Maid 

411 A Bitter Atonement 

433 My Sister Kate 

459 A Woman’s Temptation. 

(Large ti'pe edition) 

951 A W Oman’s Temptation 

460 Under a Shadow 

465 The Earl's Atoaement 

466 Between Two Loves 

467 A Struggle for a Ring 

469 Lady Darner’s Secret; or, A 

Guiding Star 

470 Evelyn’s Folly 

471 Thrown on the World 

476 Between Two Sins; or. Married 

in Haste 

516 Put Asunder; or. Lady Castle- 

maine’s Divorce 

576 Her Martyrdom 

626 A Fair Mystery 

741 The Heiress of Hilldrop; or. 
The Romance of a \oung 

Girl 

745 For Another’s Sin ; or, A Strug- 
gle for Love 

792 Set in Diamonds 

821 The World Between Them 

853 A True Magdalen 

854 A Woman's Error 

922 Marjorie 

924 ’Twixt Smile and Tear 

927 Sweet Cymbeline 

929 The Belle of Lynn; or, The 

Miller’s Daughter 

931 Lodj Diana's Pride 




i 


THE SEASIDE LIBRARY— Pocket Edition, 


949 ClaribeTs Tx)ve Story; or, Love’s 


Hidden Depths 20 

958 A Haunted Life ; or, Her Terri- 
ble Sin 20 

969 The Mystery of Oolde Fell; or, 

Not Proven 20 

973 The Squire’s Darling 20 

975 A Dark Marriage Morn 20 

978 Her Second Love 20 

982 The Duke's Secret 20 

985 On Her Wedding Morn, and 
The r.Iysteiy of the Holly-Tree 20 
988 The Shattered Idol, and Letty 

Leigh 20 

990 The Earl’s Error, and Arnold’s 

Promise 20 

995 An Unnatural Bondage, and 

That Beautiful Lady 20 

ltX)6 His Wife’s Judgment 20 

1008 A Thorn in Her Heart 20 

1010 Golden Gates. 20 

1012 A Nameless Sin 20 

1014 A Mad Love 20 

1031 Irene’s Vow 20 

1052 Signa's Sweetheart 20 

1091 A 3IO(iern Cinderella 10 

1134 Lord Elesmere’s "Wife, 20 


1155 Lured Away; or, The Story of 
a Wedding - Ring, and The 
Heiress of Arne 20 

Charlotte Bronte’s Works. 

15 Jane E 3 re 20 

57 Shirley 20 

944 The Professor 20 

Khoda Broughton’s Works. 

86 Belinda 20 

101 Second Thoughts 20 

227 Nancy 20 

645 Mrs. Smith of Longmains 10 

758 “ Good-bye, Sweetheart!” 20 

765 Not Wisely, But Too Well 20 

767 Joan 20 

768 Red as a Rose is She 20 

769 Cometh Up as a Flower 20 

862 Betty’s Visions 10 

89-4 Doctor Cupid 20 

Mary E. Bryan’s Works. 

731 The Bayou Bride 20 

857 Kildee: or. The Sphinx of the 

Bed House. 1st half 20 

857 Kildee; or. The Sphinx of the 

Red House. 2d half 20 

Robert Hiicliauan’s Works. 

145 •“ Storm-Beaten God and The 

Man 20 

154 Annan Water 20 

181 The New Abelard 10 

398 Idatt; A Tale of a Caravan... 10 

646 The Master of the Mine 20 

892 That Winter Night; or. Love’s 

Victory 10 

1074 Stormy Waters 20 

1104 The Heir of Linne 20 

Captain Fred Burnaby’s Works. 

375 A Ride to Khiva 20 

384 On Horseback Through Asia 
Minor 20 


E. Fairfax Byrrne’s Works. 

521 Entangled 20 

538 A Fair Country Maid 20 

Hall Caine’s Works. 

445 The Shadow of a Crime 20 

520 She’s All the World to Me 10 

Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron’s Works. 

595 A North Country Maid 20 

796 In a Grass Country 20 

891 Vera Nevill; or. Poor Wisdom’s 

Chance 20 

912 Pure Gold. 20 

963 Worth Winning 20 

1025 Daisy’s Dilemma 20 

1028 A Devout Lover ; or, A Wasted 

Love 20 

1070 A Life’s Mistake 20 

Rosa Nouchette Carey’s Works. 

215 Not Like Other Girls 20 

396 Robert Ord’s Atonement 20 

551 Barbara Heathcote's Trial. 1st 

half 20 

551 Barbara Heathcote’s Trial. 2d 

half 

608 For Lilias. 1st half 

608 For Lilias. 2d half 

930 Uncle Max. 1st half 

930 Uncle Max. 2d half 

932 Queenie’s Whim. 1st half 

932 Queenie’s Whim. 2d half 

934 Wooed and Married. 1st half. 

934 Wooed and Married. 2d half. 

936 Nellie’s Memories. 1st half... 

936 Nellie’s Memories. 2d half... 

961 Wee Wifle 

1033 Esther: A Story for Girls 

1064 Only the Governess 

1135 Aunt Diana 

liCwis Carroll’s Works. 

462 Alice’s Adventures in Wonder- 
land. Illustrated by John 

Tenniel 

789 Through the Looking-Glass, 
and What Alice Found There. 
Illustrated by John Tenniel. . 

Wilkie Collins’s Works. 

52 The New Magdalen 

102 The Moonstone 

167 Heart and Science 

168 No Thoroughfare. By Dickens 

and Collins 

175 Love’s Random Shot, and 

Other Stories 

233 ” I Say No ;” or. The Love-Let- 
ter Answered 

508 The Girl at the Gate 

591 The Quoen of Hearts 

613 The Ghost’s Touch, and Percy 

and the Prophet 

623 lily Lady’s Money 

701 The Woman in White. 1st half 

701 The Woman in White. 2d half 

702 Man and Wife. 1st half. 

7W Man and Wife. 2d half 


8828S3 8S8 3 3 883 S 8 888888888888888 


THE SEASIDE LIBEAEY — Pocket Edition. 


5 


764 The Evil Genius 20 

896 The Guilty River 20 

946 The Dead Secret 20 

977 The Haunted Hotel 20 

1029 Armadale. 1st half 20 

1029 Armadale. 2d half 20 

lOOo The Legacy of Cain 20 

1119 No Name. 1st half 20 

1119 No Name. 2d half 20 


Mabel Collins’s Works. 

749 Lord VanecouH’s Daughter... 20 
828 The PfettiestWoman in Warsaw ^ 


Hugh Conway’S Works* 

240 Called Back 10 

251 The Daughter of the Stars, and 
Other Tales 10 

301 Dark Days 10 

302 The Blatchford Bequest 10 

502 Carriston’s Gift 10 

525 Paul Vargas, and Other Stories 10 

543 A Family Affair 20 

601 Slings and Arrows, and Other 

Stories 10 

711 A Cardinal Sin 20 

804 Living or Dead ^ 

830 Bound by a Spell 20 

J. Fenimore Cooper’s Works* 

60 The Last of the Mohicans 20 

63 The Spy ^ 

309 The- Pathfinder 20 

clO The Prairie 20 

318 The Pioneers ; or, The Sources 

of the Susquehanna 20 

349 The Two Admirals ^ 

359 The Water-Witch ^ 

361 The Red Rover ^ 

373 Wing and Wing 20 

378 Homeward Bound; or. The 

Chase 20 

379 Home as Found. (Sequel to 

“ Homeward Bound”) 20 

380 Wyandotte; or. The Hutted 

Knoll 20 

385 The Headsman; or. The Ab- 

baye des Vignerons 20 

394 The Bravo 20 

397 Lionel Lincoln; or, The Leag- 
uer of Boston 20 

400 The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish.. 20 

413 Afloat and Ashore. 20 

414 Miles Wallingford. (Sequel to 

“Afloat and Ashore”) 20 

415 The Ways of the Hour 20 

416 Jack 9'ier ; or. The Florida Reef 20 

419 The Chainbearer; or, The Lit- 

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420 Satanstoe ; or, The Littlepage 

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Injin. Being the conclusion 
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422 Precaution 20 

423 The Sea Lions; or. The Lost 

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424 Mercedes of Castile; or. The 

Voyage to Cathay 20 


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Bee-Hunter 20 

431 The Monikins 20 

1062 The Deerslayer ; or, The First 

War-Path. 1st half 20 

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War-Path. 2d half 20 

1170 The Pilot ^ 

Marie Corelli’s Works. 

1068 Vendetta ! or. The Story of One 

Forgotten 20 

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Georgiana M. Craik’s Works. 

450 Godfrey Helstone 20 

606 Mrs. Hollyer ^ 

B. M. Crokei*’s Works* 

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2G0 Proper Pride 10 

412 Some One Else 20 

1124 Diana Barrington ^ 

May Croiiimeliii’s Works. 

452 In the West Countrie 20 

619 Joy; or. The Light of Cold- 

Home Ford 20 

647 Goblin Gold 10 

Alphonse Daudet’s Works* 

534 Jack 20 

574 The Nabob: A Story of Parisian 

Life and Manners 20 

Charles Dickens’s Works. 

10 The Old Curiosity Shop 20 

22 David Copperfleld. Vol. I 20 

22 David Copperfleld. Vol. II... 20 

24 Pickwick Papers. Vol. 1 520 

24 Pickwick Papers. Vol. II 20 

37 Nicholas Nickleby. 1st half.. 20 
37 Nicholas Nickleby. 2d half. . . ^ 

41 Oliver Twist 20 

77 A Tale of Two Cities 20 

84 Hard Times 10 

91 Barnaby Rudge. 1st half 20 

91 Barnaby Rudge. 2d half 20 

94 Little Dorrit. 1st half 20 

94 Little Dorrit. 2d half 20 

106 Bleak House. 1st half 20 

106 Bleak House. 2d half 20 

107 Dombey and Son. 1st half . . . ^ 

107 Dombey and Son. 2d half 20 

108 The Cricket on the Hearth, and 

Doctor Marigold 10 

131 Our Mutual Friend. 1st half. 20 


131 Our Mutual Friend. 2d half. . 20 

132 Master Humphrey’s Clock 10 

152 The Uncommercial Traveler.. 20 
168 No Thoroughfare. By Dickens 


and Collins 10 

169 The Haunted Man 10 

437 Life and Adventures of Martin 

Chuzzlewit. 1st half 20 

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439 Great Expectations 20 

440 Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings 10 

447 American Notes 20 


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676 A Cliild’s History of England. 

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338 The Family Difflcult.v 

679 Where Two Ways Meet 

F. Du Boisgohey’s Works. 

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328 Babiole. the Pretty Milliner. 

Second half 

453 The Lottery Ticket 

475 The Prima Doniia's Htisband. 

522 Zig-Zag, the Clown; or, The 

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523 The Consequences of a Duel. A 

Parisian Romance 

64S The Angel of the Bells 

697 The Prettj' Jailer. 1st half... 

697 The Prett.v Jailer. 2d half 

699 The Scxilptor’s Daughter. 1st 

half 

699 The Sculptor's Daughter. 2d 

half 

782 The Closed Door. 1st half 

782 The Closed Door. 2d half 

851 The Cry of Blood. 1st half... 

851 The Cry of Blood. 2d half 

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918 The Red Band. 2d half 

942 Cash on Delivery 

1076 The Mystery of an Omnibus.. 

1080 Bertha’s Secret. 1st half 

1080 Bertha’s Secret. 2d half 

1082 The Severed Hand. 1st half . . 
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coq. 1st half 

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950 Mrs. Geoffrey 

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118. Loys, Lord Berresford, and 

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^29 Rossmoyne 

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136 “That Last Rehearsal,” and 

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284 Doris 10 

312 A Week’s Amssement; or, A 

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342 The Baby, and One New Year’s 

Eve 10 

390 Mildred Trev^ion 10 

404 In Durance 'S’Tie, and Other 

Stbries 10 

486 Dick’s Sweetheait 20 

494 A Maiden All Forlorn, and Bar- 
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517 A Passive Crime, and Other 
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541 “ As It Fell Upon a Day.” 10 

733 Lady Branksmere 

771 A Mental Struggle 

785 The Haunted Chamber 

862 Ugly Barrington. 

875 Lady Valworth’s Diamonds. . . 
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1035 The Duchess 

1047 Marvel 

1103 The Honorable Mrs. Vereker. . 
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Alexander Dumas’s Works. 

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75 Twenty Years After 

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262 The Count of Monte-Cristo. 

Part I 

262 The Count of .Monte-Cristo. 

Part II 

717 Beau Tancrede; or. The Mar- 
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1058 Masaniello; or, The Fisherman 
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XT ft 

1056 The Bride of the Nile. Ist half 
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1094 Homo Sum 

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1101 An Egyptian Princess. Yol. I. 
1101 .An Egyptian Princess. Vol. II. 

1106 The Emperor 

1112 Only a Word 

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708 Ormond 

788 The Absentee. An Irish Story. 

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656 The Golden Flood. By R. E. 

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911 Golden Bells 20 

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144 Promises of Marriage 10 

979 The Count’s Secret. Part I . . . 20 
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1002 Marriage at a Venture 20 

1015 A Thousand Francs Reward , . 20 

1045 The 13th Hussars 20 

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1100 Mr. Meeson's Will. 20 

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858 Within the Clasp 20 

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281 The Squire’s Legacy 20 

290 Nora’s Love Test 20 

408 Lester’s Secret 20 

678 Doroth 5 ’’s Venture 20 

716 Victor and Vanquished 20 

849 A Wicked Girl 20 

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313 The Lover's Creed 20 

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162 Eugene Aram 20 

164 Leila; or,The Siege of Grenada 10 
650 Alice; or. The Mysteries. (A Se- 
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720 Paul Clifford 20 

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282 Donal Grant 20 

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326 Phan tastes. A Faerie Romance 

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722 What’s Mine’s Mine 20 

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479 Louisa 20 

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E. Marlitt’s Works. 

652 The Lady with the Rubies.... 20 

858 Old Ma’m’selle’s Secret 20 

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1115 The Countess Gisela ^ 

1130 The Owl-House 

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863 “ My Own Child.”. . . . : 20 

864 ” No Intentions.” 20 

865 Written in Fire 20 

866 Miss Harrington’s Husband; 

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867 The Girls of Feversham 20 

868 Petronel ^ 

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877 Facing the Footlights 20 

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1880—1885 20 

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674 First Person Singular 20 

691 Valentine Strange. 20 

695 Hearts: Queen, Knave, and 

Deuce 20 

698 A Life's Atonement 20 

7.37 Aunr Rachel 10 

826 Cynic Fortune 20 

898 Bulldog and Butterfly, and Ju- 
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1102 Young Mr. Barter’s Repent- 
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500 .Adrian Vidal 20 

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637 Ploc«uiU]jr iO 


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337 Memoirs and Resolutions of 
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the borough of Fendie 

345 Madam 

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357 John 

370 Imcy Crofton 

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the Scottish Reformation — 
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410 Old I>ady Mary 

527 The Da\ s of My Life 

528 At His Gates 

608 Tlie Perpetual Curate 

569 Harry Muir 

603 Agnes. 1st half 

G03 Agnes. 2d half 

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604 Innocent. 2d half 

605 Ombra 

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655 The Open Door, and The Por- 
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672 In Maremma. 1st half 

672 In Maremma. 2d half 

874 A House Party 

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1000 Puck. 1st half 

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232 Love and Money ; or, A Peril- 

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235 “ It is Never 'Epo Late to 
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71 A Struggle for Fame 

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1007 Miss Gascoigne 

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157 Miily'sHero 

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261 A Fair Maid 

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590 The Courting of Mary Smith.. 

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884 A Voyage to the Cape 20 

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257 Beyond Recall 10 

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363 The Surgeon's Daughter 10 

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417 The Fair Maid of Perth ; or, St. 

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418 St. Ron an ’s AVe'll 20 

463 Redgauntlet. A Tale of the 

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507 Chronicles of the Canongate, 

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653 A Barren Title 10 

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686 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and 

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704 Prince Otto 10 

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940 The Merry Men, and Other 

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405 My Friends and I. Edited by 

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271 The Mysteries of Paris, Part I 30 
271 The Mysteries of Paris. Part II 30 

George Temple’s Works. 


599 liancelot AVard, M.P 10 

642 Britta 10 

William M. Thackeray’guWorks. 

27 Vanity Fair. 1st half 20 

27 Vanity Fair. 2d half 20 

165 The History of Henry Esmond 20 

464 The Newcomes. Parti 20 

464 The Newcomes. Part II 20 

670 The Rose and the Ring. Illus- 
trated ^ 10 

Works by the Author of “The 
Two Aliss Flemings.’’ 

637 What’s His Offence? 20 

780 Rare Pale Margaret 20 

784 The Two Miss Flemings 20 

831 Pomegranate Seed 20 

Annie Thomas’s Works. 

141 She Loved Him I 10 

142 Jenifer 20 

565 No Medium 10 

Bertha Thomas’s Works. 

389 Ichabod, A Portrait 10 

960 Elizabeth’s Fortune 20 

Count I.yof Tolstoi’s Works. 

1066 My Husband and 1 10 

1069 Polikouchka 10 

1071 The Death of Ivan Iliitch 10 

1073 Two Generations 10 

low The Cossacks 20 

1108 Sebastopol 20 

Anthony Trollope’s Works. 

32 The Land Leaguers 2C 

93 Anthony Trollope’s Autobiog- 
raphy SC 


THE SEASIDE LTBEAHY— Docket Editioit. 


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147 Rachel Ray 20 

200 An Old Man’s Love 10 

531 The Prime Minister. 1st half. 20 
531 Tlie Prime Minister. 2d half*. 20 

621 The Warden 10 

622 Harry Heathcote of Gangroil.. 10 
667 The Golden Lion of Granpere . 20 

700 Ralph the Heir. 1st half 20 

700 Ralph the Heir. 2d half 20 

775 The Three Clerks 20 

Mavcravet Veley’s Works, 

298 Mitchelhnrst Place : 10 

5^ “ For Percival ” 20 

Jules Verne’s Works. 

87 Dick Sand; or, A Captain at 

Fifteen 20 

100 20.000 Leagues Under the Seas 20 
368 The Southern Star ; or, the Dia- 
mond Land 20 

395 The Archipelago on Fire 10 

578 Mathias Saudorf. Illustrated. 

Part I 10 

578 IMatliias Sandorf. 111. Part H. 10 
578 Mathias Sandorf. 111. Part HI. 10 
659 The Waif of the “ Cynthia ”. . 20 


751 Great Voyages and Great Navi- 
gators. 1st half 20 

751 Great Voyages and Great Navi- 
gators. 2d half 20 

833 Ticket No. “ 9672.” 1st half. . . 10 
833 Ticket No. “ 9672.” 2d half . . . 10 
976 Robur the Conqueror; or. A 
Trip Round the World in a 


Flying Machine 20 

1011 Texar’s Vengeance ; or. North 

Versus South. Parti 20 

1011 Texar’s Vengeance ; or, North 

Versus South. Part II 20 

1020 Michael Strogoff; or. The 

Courier of the Czar 20 

1050 The Tour of the World in 80 

Days 20 

1162 From the Earth to the Moon. 

Illustrated 20 

1153 Round the Moon. llhistrateJ 20 

Ij. B. Walford’s Works, 

241 The Baby’s Grandmother 10 

256 Mr. Smith : A Part of His Life 20 

258 Cousins 20 

658 The History of a Week 10 

Mrs. Humphry Ward’s Works. 

369 Miss Bretherton 10 

1116 Robert F.lsmere. 1st half 20 

1116 Robert Eismere. 2d half 20 

F. Warden’s Works. 

192 At the World’s Mercy 10 

248 The House on the Marsh 10 

286 Deldee ; or, Th© Iron Hand. . . 20 

482 A Vagrant Wife 20 

556 A Prince of Darkness 20 

820 Doris's Fortune 20 

1037 Scheherazade ; A London 

Night’s Eutertainment 20 

1087 A Woman’s Face; or, A Lake- 
land Mystery. SO 


William Ware’s Works. 


709 Zenobia; or. The Fall of Pal- 

m 3 'ra. 1st half 20 

709 Zenobia; or. The Fall of Pal- 
myra. 2d half 20 

760 Aurelian ; or, Rome in the Third 

Century 20 

iSamiiel Warren’s Works. 


406 The Merchant’s Clerk 10 

1142 Ten Thousand a Year. Part I 20 
1142 Ten Thousand a Year. Part H 20 
1142 Ten Thousand a Year. Part HI 20 


Works by the Author of “Wedded 
Hands.” 


626 Wedded Hands 20 

968 Blossom and Fruit ; or, Mad- 
ame’sWard 20 


E. Werner’s Works. 

327 Raymond’s Atonement 20 

540 At a High Price 20 

1067 Saint Michael. 1st half 20 

1067 Saint Michael. 2d half 20 

1089 Home Sounds 20 

1154 A Judgment of God 20 

fr.'J* Wliyte-Melville’s Works. 

409 Ro.v’s Wife 20 

451 Market Harborough, and In- 
side the Bar 20 

John Strange Winter’s Works* 
492 Booties’ Baby ; or, Mignon. Il- 
lustrated 10 

600 Houp-La. Illustrated 10 

638 In Quarters with the 25th (The 
Blnck Horse) Dragoons 10 


688 A Man of Honor. Illustrated. 10 
746 Cavalry Life; or. Sketches and 

Stories in Barracks and Out. 20 
813 Army Society. Life in a Gar- 


rison Town. 10 

818 Pluck . 10 

876 Mignon’s Secret 10 

9G6 A Siege Baby and Childhood's 

Memories 20 

971 Garrison Gossip; Gathered in 

Blaukhampton 20 

1032 Mignon’s Husband 20 

1039 Driver Dallas 10 

1079 Beautiful Jim; of the Blank- 

shire Regiment 20 

1117 Princess Sarah 10 

1121 Booties’ Children 10 


Mrs. Henry Wood’s Works. 

8 East Lynne, 1st half 20 

8 East Lynne 2d half ^ 

255 The Mystery 20 

277 The Surgeon’s Daughters 10 

508 The Unholy Wish 10 

513 Helen Whitney’s Wedding, and 

Other Tales 10 

514 The Mystery of Jessy Page, 

and Other Tales 10 

610 The Story of Uorothy Grape, 

and Other Tales 10 

1001 Lady Adelaide’s Oath; or. The 
CwUe’sHeir 2Q 


THE SEASIDE LIBKARY — Pocket Edition. 


13 


1021 The Heir to Ashley, and The 


Red-Court Farm 20 

1027 A Life’s Secret ^ 

1042 Lady Grace ^ 

Charlotte M. Yonge’s Works. 

247 The Armourer s Prentices 10 

27.5 The Tiiree Brides 10 

535 Henrietta’s Wish; or, Domi- 
neering 10 

563 The Two Sides of the Shield... 20 
640 Nuttie’s Father 20 

665 The Dove in the Eagle’s Nest. 20 

666 Mj’’ Young Alcides: A Faded 

Photograph 20 

739 The Caged Lion ^ 

742 Love and Life 20 

783 Chantry House 20 

790 The Chaplet of Pearls; or, The 
Wliite and Black Ribaumont. 

1st half 20 

790 The Chaplet of Pearls; or, The 
White and black Ribaumont. 

2d half 20 

800 Hopes and Fears ; or. Scenes 
from the Life of a Spinster. 

1st half 20 

800 Hopes and Fears; or, Scenes 
from the Life of a Spinster. 

2<.l half 20 

887 A Modern Telemachus 20 

1024 Under the Storm; or. Stead- 
fast’s Charge 20 

1133 Our New Mistress 20 

Miscellaneous. 

53 The Story of Ida. Francesca. . 10 
61 Charlotte Temple. Mrs. Row- 

son 10 

99 Barbara’s Historj' Amelia B. 

Edwards 20 

103 Rose Fleming. Dora Russell.. 10 
105 A Noble Wife. John Saunders 20 

112 The Waters of Marah. John 

Hill .. 20 

113 Mrs. Carr’s Companion. M. G. 

Wightwick 10 

114 Some of Our Girls. Mrs. C. J. 

Eiloart 20 

115 Diamond Cut Diamond. T. 

Adolphus Trollope 10 

127 Adrian Bright. Mrs. Caddy 20 

149 The Captain’s Daughter. From 

the Rus.sian of Pushkin 10 

151 The Ducie Diamonds. C. Blath- 
er wick 10 

1.56 “For a Dream’s Sake.” Mrs. 

Herbert Martin 20 

158 The Starling. Norman Mac- 
leod, D.D 10 

160 Her Gentle Deeds. Sarah Ty tier 10 

161 The I^ady of Lyons. Founded 

on the Play'of that title by 

Lonl Lytton 10 

163 Winifred Power. Joyce Dar- 
rell 20 

170 Great Treason, A. By Marj' 
Hoppus. Ist half 20 


170 Great Treason, A. By Mary 


Hoppus. 2d half 90 

174 Under a Ban. Mrs. Lodge 30 

176 An April Day. Philippa Prit- 

tie Jephson 10 

178 More Leaves from the Journal 
of a Life in the Highlands. 

Queen Victoria 10 

182 The Millionaire 20 

185 Dita. Lady Margaret Majendie 10 
187 The Midnight Sun. Fredrika 

Bremer 10 

198 A Husband’s Story l(> 

203 John Bull and His Island. Max 

ORell 10 

218 Agnes Sorel. G. P. R. James. . 20 

219 Lady Clare : or. The Master of 

the Forges. Georges Ohnet 10 
242 The Two Orphans. D’Ennery. 10 
253 The Amazon. Carl Vosmaer. . 10 
266 The Water-Babies. Rev. Chas. 

Kingsley 10 

274 Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, 
Prince.ss of Great Britain and 
Ireland. Biographical Sketch 

and Letters 10 

285 The Gambler’s Wife 30 

289 John Bull’s Neighbor in Her 
True Light. A “ Brutal Sax- 
on ” 10 

311 Two Years Before the Mast. R. 

H. Dana, Jr 20 

329 The Polish Jew. (Translated 

from the French by Caroline 
A. Merighi.) Erckmann Chat- 
rian 10 

330 May Blossom : or. Between Two 

Loves. Margaret Lee 20 

834 A IMarriage of Convenience. 

Harriett Jav 10 

335 The White Witch 20 

340 Under Which King? Compton 

Reade 20 

341 Madolin Rivers; or. The Little 

Beauty of Red Oak Seminary. 

Laura Jean Libbey 20 

347 As Avon Flows. Henry Scott 

Vince 20 

352 At Any Cost. Edward Garrett. 10 
354 The Lottery of Life. A Story 
of New York Twenty Years 
Ago. John Brougham 20 


355 The Princess Dagomar of Po- 

land. Heinrich Felbermann. 10 

356 A Good Hater. Frederick Boyle 20 
365 George Cliristy ; or. The Fort- 


tines of a Minstrel. Tony 

Pastor 90 

366 The Mysterious Hunter; or. 
The Man of Death. Capt. L. 

C. Carleton 20 

374 The Dead Man’s Secret. Dr. 

Jupiter Paeon 90 

381 The Red Cardinal. Frances 

Elliot 10 

382 Three Sisters. Elsa D’Esterre- 

Keeling 10 

383 Introduced to Society. Hamil- 

ton j^d6 10 


THE SEASIDE J ABE AH Y— Pocket Edition. 


l4 


387 The Secret of the Cliffs. Char- 
lotte French 20 

403 An EnglLsh Squire. C. R. Cole- 
ridge 20 

407 T5'lney Hall. Thomas Hood ... 20 
420 Venus’s Doves. Ida Ashworth 

Taylor 20 

430 A Hitter Reckoning. Author 

of “By Crooked Paths ” 10 

435 Klytia : A Story of Heidelberg 

Ca.st!e. George Taylor 20 

Stella. Fanny Lewaid 20 

441 A Sea Change. Flora L. Shaw. ^ 

442 Rjinthorpe. George Henry 

Lewes 20 

413 The Bachelor of the Albany... 10 

457 The Russians at the Gates of 

Herat. Chai les Marvin 10 

458 A Week of Passion; or, The 

Dilemma of Mr. George Bar- 
ton the Younger. Edward 

Jenkins 20 

4G8 The Fortunes, Good and Bad, 
of a Sewing-Girl. Charlotte 

M. Stanley 10 

48^1 Betwixt My Love and Me. By 

author of “ A Golilen Bar ”. . . 10 
485 Tinted Vapours. J. Maclaren 

Cobban 10 

491 Society in London. A Foreign 

Resident 10 

493 Colonel Enderby’s Wife. Lucas 

Malet 20 

501 Mr. Butler's Ward. F. Mabel 
Robinson 20 

504 Curly: A n Actor’s Story. John 

Coleman 10 

505 The Society of London. Count 

Paul Vasili 10 

510 A Mad Love. Author of “ Lover 

and Lord’’ 10 

512 The Waters of Hercules 20 

.518 The Hidden Sin 20 

519 James Gordon’s Wife 20 

526 Madame De Presnel. E. Fran- 
ces Foynter 20 

532 Arden Court. Barbara Graham 20 

533 Hazel Kirke. Marie Walsh 20 

536 Dissolving Views. Mrs. Andrew 

Lang 10 

545 Vida’s Story. By the author of 
“ Guiity Without Crime ”. . . 10 
516 Mrs. Keith's Crime. A Novel.. 10 
571 Paul Crew’s Story. Alice Co- 
rny ns Carr '. 10 

575 The Finger of Fate. Captain 
Mayne Reid 20 

581 The Betrothed. (I Promessi 

Sposi.) Allessaudro Manzoni 20 

582 Lucia. Hugh and Another. Mrs. 

J. H. Needed 20 

583 Victory Deane. Cecil Griffith.. ^ 

584 Mixed Motives 10 

599 I.,ancelot Ward, M.P. George 

Temple 10 

612 My Wife’s Niece. By the author 

of “ Dr. Edith Romney ” 20 

624 Primus in Indis. M. J. Colqu- 
houn 10 


6.14 The Unforeseen. Alice O’Han- 
lon 21 

641 The Rabbi’s Spell. Stuart C. 

Cumberland 10 

643 The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey 
Craj'ou, Gent. Washington 

Irving 20 

654 “ Us.” An Old-fashioned Story. 

Mrs. Molesworth 10 

662 The Mystery of Allan Grale. 
Isabella Fy vie Mayo 20 

668 Half-Way. An Anglo-French 

Romance 20 

669 The Philosophy of Whist. 

William Pole 20 

675 Mrs. Dymond. Miss 'I’hackeray 20 
681 A Singer’s Story. Jlay Laffan. 10 
683 The Bachelor Vicar of New- 

forth. Mrs. J. Harcourt-Roe . 20 


684 Last Days at Apswich 10 

692 The Mikado, and Other Comic 
Operas. Written by W. S. 
Gilbert. Composed by Arthur 
Sullivan 20 

705 The Woman I Loved, and the 

Woman Who Loved Me. Isa 
Blagden 10 

706 A Crimson Stain. Annie Brad- 

shaw 10 

712 For Mairaie's Sake. Grant 

Allen 20 

718 Unfairly Won. Mrs. Power 

O’Donogliue 20 

719 Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. 

Lord Byron 10 

723 Mauleverer’s Millions. T. We- 

myss Reid 20 

725 My Ten Years’ Imprisonment. 
Silvio Pellico 10 

730 The Autobiography of Benja- 
min Franklin 10 

735 Until the- Day Breaks. Emily 

Spender 20 

748 Hurrish: A Study. By the 

Hon. Emily Lawless 20 

750 An Old Story of My Farming 
Days. Fritz Reuter. 1st half 20 
750 An Old Story of My Farming 

Days. Fritz Reuter. 2d half 20 


752 Jackanapes, and Other Stories. 

Juliana Horatia Ewing .. 10 

754 How to be Haimy Though Mar- 

ried. By a Graduate in the 
University of Matrimony 20 

755 Margery Daw 20 

756 The Strange Adventures of Cap- 

tain Dangerous. A Narrative 
in Plain English. Attempted 
by George Augustus Sala 20 

757 Love’s Martyr. Laurence Alma 

Tadema 10 

759 In Shallow Waters. Annie Ar- 

mitf 20 

766 No. XTTI; or. The Story of the 

Lost Vestal. Emma Marshall 10 
770 The Castle of Otranto. Hor- 
ace Walpole K) 


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669 Pole on Whist 20 

432 THE WITCH’S HEAD. By 
H. llider Hap:g:ard 20 

1182 The Reproach of Annesley. 

By Maxwell Gray 20 

1183 Jack of Hearts. A Story of 

Bohemia. By H. T. Johnson. 20 

1184 A Crown of Shame. By Flor- 

ence Marryat 20 

1185 A Fiery Ordeal. By Charlotte 

M. Braeme 20 

1186 Guelda. A Novel ^ 

1187 Suzanne. By the author of “A 

Great Mistake” 20 

1188 My Heart’s Darling. By W. 

Heimburg: 20 

1189 A Crooked Path. By Mrs. Al- 

exander 20 


1190 CliEOPATRA: Being an Ac- 
count of the Fall and Venge- 
ance of Harmachis, the Royal 
Egyptian, as set forth by His 
Own Hand. By H. Rider 


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1191 On Circumstantial Evidence. 

By Florence Marr 5 ’^at 20 

1192 Miss Kate ; or, Confessions of 

a Caretaker. By “Rita” 20 

1193 The Fog Princes. A Romance 

of the Dark Metropolis. By 
Florence Warden 20 

1194 The Search for Basil Lynd- 

hurst. By Rosa Nouchette 
Carey 30 

1195 Dumaresq’s Temptation. By 

Charlotte M. Braeme 20 

1197 The Autobiography of a Slan- 

der, by Edna Lyall; and 
“ Jerry.” — “ That Night in 
June.”— A Wrong Turning. — 
Irish Love and Alarriage. By 
the “Duchess.” 10 

1198 Gred of Nuremberg. A Ro- 

mance of the 15th Century. 

By George Ebers 20 

1199 A False Scent. By Mrs. Alex- 

ander 10 

1200 Beechcroft at Rockstone. By 

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1201 Mehalah. A Story of the Salt 

Marshes. By S. Baring-Gould. 20 


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1202 Harvest. By John Strange 

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1203 Miss Shafto. By W. E. Norris. 20 

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Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron 20 

1205 A Lost Wife. By Mrs. H. Lov- 

ett Cameron 20 

1206 Derrick Vaughan — Novelist. 

By Edna Lyall 10 

1207 The Princess and the Jew. By 

1. 1. Kraszewski 20 

1208 Merle’s Crusade. By Rosa Nou- 

chette Carey 20 

1209 A Troublesome Girl. By “ The 

Duchess ” 20 

1210 Marooned. By W.Clark Russell 20 

1211 The Day Will Come. By Miss 

M. E. Braddon 20 

1212 The History of a Slave. Bj' H. 

H. Johnston, F. R. G. S., F. 

Z. S., etc 20 

1213 Jenny Harlowe. By W. Clark 

Russell 10 

1214 Wild Darrie. By David Chris- 

tie Murray and H. Herman. . . 20 

1215 Adrian Lyle. By “Rita” 20 


1216 The Story of a Clerg 5 ’man’s 

Daughter ; or. Reminiscences 
from the Life of my old 
Friend. By W. Heimburg. . . 20 

1217 Uncle Piper of Piper’s Hill. 

An Australian Novel. By 


Tasma 20 

1218 Masterman Ready; or. The 

Wreck of the “ Pacific.” By 
Captain Marryat 20 

1219 That Other Woman. By Annie 

Thomas 20 

1220 Mistress Beatrice Cope; or. 

Passages in the Life of a 
Jacobite’s Daughter. By M. 

TT T.APlArp *■>0 

1221 “The Tents of siiem.” By ~ 

Grant Allen 20 

1222 Jacques Bonhomme.— J o h n 

Bull on the Continent.— From 
my Letter-Box. By Max 
O’Rell 20 

1223 A Little Fool. By John Strange 

Winter 10 


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